I am an Occupational Therapist. #OT
Questions I love getting asked: "You help people get jobs?”...”You help people get dressed and bathe and stuff?”...“You help people with their arms?”... and the list goes on. I am here to tell you what an occupational therapist pours their heart into every day for your loved one...
We collaborate with doctors, nurses and families to ensure your loved one is being treated with the best approach and care in the ICU including positioning, splinting, education, and mobility all with a smile to help aide in the healing process...
We rehab a former business man, whose brain can no longer send the correct signals to produce the purposeful motor skills to dress himself, feed himself, or care for himself to be as independent as possible...
We help a child who is getting ready to enter kindergarten and is developmentally delayed in fine motor and sensory processing skills making it difficult for them to utilize scissors, draw shapes and letters, or have the attention to follow directions in class resulting in frequent behavior outbursts, frustrations and being in trouble...
We give hope to the parents who have finally received a diagnosis they have been waiting for, we are there and we are there from beginning to end with open arms and ears and we begin to do research on this rare condition in order to be the best occupational therapist we can be for you and your loved one....
We teach someone with a new prosthetic arm how to functionally use it in everyday tasks and self-care skills to increase their quality of life...
We show someone how to transfer from a bed to their wheelchair they just received after a new spinal cord injury they endured from a tragic car accident....
We help someone who struggles with severe anxiety and depression cope with the highs and lows by finding their triggers and how to address these symptoms head on so they can resume everyday life....
We have the difficult and tense conversation with a family to tell them that their mom is unsafe with her daily skills to go back to her home alone and they need to look into other options..
We help a child in school that has difficulty with copying the board correctly or sitting still in the chair, change and adapt his/her environment to promote success in class and confidence in the child..
We think about these people ALL the time, when we see someone that looks like them, when we see their favorite book they were telling us about, when we see their families in the store, when we hear a similar voice, and when we're falling asleep at night. We pray for them, check on them, spend time off the clock reaching out, and spend our own money on things that we think may help them because they become apart of our family..
So with that being said, if you have the privilege of knowing or working with an Occupational Therapist, tell them thank you because I can promise you this, they pour their hearts and soul into helping your loved one without thinking twice about it because that is exactly why they chose this field, to help people! #helpingothers #occupationaltherapy #thisisus
- Madeline Dunlap, MS, OTR/L
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