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Physical Occupational Therapy

Carl Said:

What's the difference between Physical & Occupational Therapies?

We Answered:

To name just a few, a patient may be referred to O.T. for one or more of the following reasons:
1. As specific treatment for psychiatric patients, the learning disabled, or otherwise mentally impaired (such as due to a closed head injury).
2. As specific treatment for restoration of physical function, i.e., to increase joint motion, muscle strength and gross to fine coordination skills.
3. To teach self-help activities of daily living such as eating, dressing, bathing and writing, the use of adaptive equipment and prostheses.
4. To help the disabled homemaker (male or female) readjust to home routines with the advice and instruction as to the adaptation of household equipment and work simplification.
5. To develop work tolerance and maintenance of special skills as required by the patient's job.
6. To provide prevocational exploration for employability, including testing their capacity to drive a car.

In other words, O.T.s and P.T.s work together as part of a team in order to achieve the same goal for the patient, i.e., to help him or her reach maximum independence in activities of daily living. But they use different modalities to accomplish this goal--often overlapping. P.T.s use whirl pools and hot packs unlike O.T.s., for example. Too, O.T.s can work in a few more settings, such as in a psychiatric drug rehab. program. The initial course requirements of gross anatomy, pathology, histology, neuroanatomy, etc. are the same. O.T. students branch off when they study therapeutic activities (such as weaving on a loom and woodworking), orthotics (such as hand-splint making), the use of adaptive equipment, and psychiatry.
Note:
In some rehab settings, such as nursing homes, the O.T. staff generally work on the upper half of the body while the P.T. staff work on the lower. This is only due to time constraints, an older person's activity tolerance, and to minimize duplicate therapy that insurances may not pay for. But both therapists are well trained to treat the entire body.

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