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Occupational Therapy Can Benefit Rheumatology Patients

  |  Issue: November 2014  |  

Communication about specific splints used can be helpful so the rheumatologist can better understand how that splint helps the patient, Tieng says. the rheumatologist

Vanessa Caceres is a medical writer in Bradenton, Fla.

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Reference

  1. Ekelman BA, Hooker L, Davis A, et al. Occupational therapy interventions for adults with rheumatoid arthritis: An appraisal of the evidence. Occup Ther Health Care. 2014 May 27 [epub ahead of print].

Making Activities of Daily Living Easier: What Occupational Therapists Might Suggest

This is just a sampling of the concrete solutions occupational therapists share with patients to help them manage activities of daily living:

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  1. If a patient has trouble bending over and using their hands to put on their socks, the therapist might suggest the use of an adaptive device that makes donning socks easier. For one of Dodge’s patients, this easy tool saved a patient’s son from visiting just to help them put on socks.
  2. Instead of using heavy pots and pans while cooking, therapists will suggest using lighter-weight pots and pans that have two handles, so the patient can hold them in a more stable fashion.
  3. When patients are cutting vegetables, therapists might suggest they sit down. Perniciaro recommends that patients who find cutting difficult buy pre-cut carrots, peppers, onions and other items. If food shopping itself is difficult, the therapist may help the patient explore grocery delivery.
  4. If they have difficulty gripping utensils, therapists may inform patients of adaptive devices that are portable and attach to any utensil to make gripping easier.

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