Skills for Life
Independence with Daily Tasks
There are a lot of different reasons why you may be struggling with daily tasks. Your abilities may have been impacted by injury, illness, chronic disease, mental health issues, developmental delay, learning problems, or other factors. These conditions can impact anything from remembering to brush your teeth every day, to getting into a healthy daily routine, going back to work or school after an injury or illness… maybe even trying to reconnect with your partner or learn how to make friends.
Learning how to step back and analyze the situation, then create a plan and follow through is an important challenge. Sometimes it’s a matter of building healthy habits, but other times it can just be helpful to consult with someone who is trained to help people with these kinds of changes.
Occupational therapy is a profession that helps people work through the steps of a task and address the barriers that you face to getting things done. It helps you or your family members develop the skills needed for day-to-day activities. The goal of occupational therapy sessions is to work with you to find solutions that will allow you to develop new skills, regain skills that have been impacted by an illness, or maintain your function and independence and prevent injury.
Return to Work and School
Debilitating symptoms can be a barrier to participating in work, school, or even social or community activities. Once your symptoms are sufficiently improved to allow you to return to the parts of your life that you have lost, your therapist will be able to help you develop a plan for success.
If, for example, you have stopped attending work/school due to severe anxiety, your therapist will work with you to begin to manage the anxiety symptoms. Once you are better able to control your thinking and the physical anxiety response, the therapist will help you to assess the work/school demands. What will be easy? What will be difficult?
Home Safety
Occupational therapists assess safety and independence with respect to I/ADLs. In some cases, simple changes may allow individuals to continue to live independently and/or maximize quality of life. In other cases, more intensive rehabilitation programs or changes are required in order to support independence. OTs assess and make recommendations regarding methods of maximizing safety in the home environment. This may include home modifications, specialized home appliances (auto shut-off), cognitive rehabilitation programs, counselling or psychotherapy support, and more.
How We Help
At Renew, we use a variety of approaches. Depending on your needs, these may include:
- Counselling or psychotherapy support
- Therapy programs for behaviour, cognitive or physical problems
- Introducing new ways of doing things
- Working with you to modify your environment (including prescribing equipment, ergonomic assessments, classroom or workplace modifications, etc.)