Occupational Therapy Services Benefits for Seniors

Strokes take their victims by surprise, taking away abilities that were always there before. Seniors who have suffered strokes often experience a loss of strength and control of one side of their bodies, the ability to speak or eat normally, as well as cognitive and emotional disabilities that make daily tasks hard, if not nearly impossible. At Home Personal Care provides a host of stroke rehabilitation therapies for seniors, including occupational therapy services in Manassas and throughout Northern Virginia.

All seniors recovering from a stroke need support and the right kinds of therapies to help them regain as much function and independence as possible. Working together with your doctor, physical therapy team and skilled in-home nursing care team, our occupational therapists come to your home to work with you, in your own surroundings, to help you achieve as much stroke recovery as possible in the following ways:

1. Retraining and Adaptation for Activities of Daily Living (ADLs)

One of the biggest goals most seniors who’ve suffered a stroke have is just to be able to button a shirt, lift a spoon or brush their teeth again. While it’s not possible in every case to recover all pre-stroke activities of daily living (ADLs), our at home occupational therapy services for seniors team works with you on a variety of OT tasks designed to find ways for you to do as many ADLs again as possible. When there are additional difficulties, your occupational therapist can help you with adaptive technologies and methods that can still help you accomplish those same things, but in new ways.

2. Improving in Strength and Balance

In order to help seniors recovering from a stroke to regain their ability to do those ADLs, our occupational therapy services for seniors includes activities that directly address the weakness, loss of coordination, vision, sensory loss and cognitive difficulties resulting from the stroke. Your occupational therapist will work with your other healthcare providers and your family to design a personal OT treatment plan with specific activities and goals to help you improve strength, balance and mobility.

3. Modifying the Environment for Ease of Use

It can take a long time and a considerable amount of work and therapy to recover abilities after a stroke, and some abilities may not ever be recovered. So during the course of OT and other therapies, our at home occupational therapy services team can help you access assistive technology and devices that can make daily life easier during this difficult time. Your in-home occupational therapist can also help your family rearrange things at home to make life easier during recovery.

4. Addressing Eating and Swallowing Difficulties

Due to overall weakness and dysfunction in major muscle groups, many seniors recovering from a stroke have difficulty just eating and swallowing food. Our occupational therapy services for seniors team has several activities to address these difficulties so that your ability to eat and swallow can improve.

5. Helping with Social and Emotional Health Concerns

It’s natural after a stroke for seniors to feel depressed and struggle to maintain relationships that are so important for their mental health. OT can help here as well. Our at home occupational therapy services team strives to help you work on engaging activities that serve multiple purposes at once: helping you have fun, improving your social connections and helping you regain other skills the stroke may have blunted. This social connection and the support of your occupational therapist can mean the world to a recovering stroke patient.

6. Living to Prevent Further Strokes

Your occupational therapist is committed to helping you regain function and a positive outlook on life, all while helping you adopt nutritional and physical activities that can help you prevent any further strokes. Our OT team works closely with your doctors and home care team to help you develop healthy habits and keep you safe, so that you can improve your quality of life in any way possible.

Find Out about At Home Occupational Therapy Services for Seniors in Northern Virginia

Occupational therapy services for seniors recovering from a stroke here in Northern Virginia can provide a critical lifeline of support and and resources that can lead to significant life improvements. To learn more about our services, call us at (703) 494-3989.