There are times, for whatever reason, when the English language can be confounding. The examples of everywhere. We drive on a parkway and park on a driveway. This can apply to professions as well. Take for example, occupational therapy. That has to do with work, right? After all, “occupation” is right there in the name. And that’s correct, but only to an extent, because the role of an occupational therapist is that and so much more. In broad terms, occupational therapy focuses on a person’s ability to perform activities of daily living—to live life to its fullest. For people with ALS, an occupational therapist (or OT) is there to help patients maintain their independence for as long as possible as well as to improve their quality of life. The work an OT does can take on many forms as we’ll soon see, but in some ways their role can be summed up by this quote from the movie Patch Adams: “You treat a disease: you win, you lose. You treat a person, I guarantee you win—no matter what the outcome.”
April is Occupational Therapy Month, and what better way to mark the occasion than to hear from someone who knows the role of an OT inside and out: our Associate Director of Care Services Melissa Smith, who just so happens to be a licensed OT.
Continue reading Finding a Way—Occupational Therapists Are the Problem-Solvers of the Multi-Discipline ALS Treatment Team
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