Occupational therapy: Effective medicine for spinal cord injury

27 September, 2012

Accidents, trauma or injury can have a devastating effect on the physical and mental health of an individual. Occupational therapy, as the name suggests engages an individual in an occupation thereby promoting health by enabling him to perform meaningful and purposeful activities.

TAKE THE case of Nimish Goyel, who never imagined that his life would change completely after a road accident in which he suffered a serious spinal cord injury that left him confined to a wheel chair. But thanks to the occupational therapy given at the Indian Spinal Injuries Centre (ISIC), which boosted his confidence to go out in public and develop the will to live a normal life, now he is able perform basic routine activities.

Common occupational therapy interventions include helping children with disabilities to participate fully in school and social situations, helping people recover from injury to regain skills, and providing support for older people experiencing physical and cognitive changes.

The treatment of the patients involves improving their physical, mental, psychological and psychosocial status by restoring and enhancing the performance of those skills, which are essential for a self supporting lifestyle and minimising the disability.

Besides occupational therapy, it deals with training of the activities of daily living such as writing, eating, grooming, dressing, and wheelchair skills within the limits of disability enabling the patient to lead an independent life.

"Occupational therapy has a huge scope in many various settings . An occupational therapist works for the rehabilitation of not only the physically and neurologically impaired adults, (as in hospitals and clinics), but it also plays an important role in the rehabilitation and integration of children with disabilities (as in special schools and integrated set ups),” said Dr. Chitra Kataria, Head of Rehabilitation, ISIC.

Dr. Chitra added that these days occupational therapy is also entering the arena of ergonomics. Apart from this, an occupational therapist is also involved in the designing and fabrication of splints. The overall philosophy of occupational therapy is the complete independence of a person with disability, not only physically, but cognitively and psychologically as well."

The different areas where this treatment can be applied are: orthopaedics – post fracture stiffness, frozen shoulders, rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, amputation, ankylosing spondylitis& congenital disorders. Neurological – spinal ailments, stroke, head injury, Parkinson Disease & paediatric conditions – cerebral palsy, mental retardation, autism and learning disabilities.