Helping Seniors Achieve their Goals
with Occupational Therapy

Physical therapy works on movement: strength, balance and walking. Occupational therapy works on the tasks that movement is for: dressing, bathing, cooking, getting on and off the toilet, managing medication.

Many clients need both, and the two therapists work from one coordinated plan. An estimated 20.2 percent of Americans aged 65 and older have difficulty with, or cannot perform, at least one basic activity of daily living, which is the population occupational therapy exists for.

Watches how the client actually performs daily tasks in their own space, then changes the task, the technique or the environment so it can be done safely.

That might mean a grab bar, a different dressing method, a reorganized kitchen, or adaptive equipment the family did not know existed. The assessment has to happen in the home, because the obstacle is usually specific to that bathroom or that kitchen.

Yes, when a physician orders it, there is a skilled need, and the patient meets the homebound criteria. Medicare does not require copayments or a deductible for covered home health services.

Occupational therapy can also continue privately once a Medicare episode ends. That is common for clients who have plateaued on Medicare’s definition of progress but still have specific tasks they want to get back.

People who can still move but can no longer manage daily tasks safely: stroke survivors, patients with Parkinson’s or arthritis, anyone recently discharged after a hip or shoulder surgery, and clients with early dementia.

For dementia clients the goal is different from the others. Rather than restoring a lost ability, the therapist simplifies the task so the person can keep doing it themselves, which preserves function and dignity longer than taking it over would.

Usually, and it is one of the highest-value parts of the visit. Grab bars, raised toilet seats, shower chairs, reachers and adaptive utensils are inexpensive and frequently prevent a fall.

The value is in the specificity. A therapist who has watched the client transfer in their own bathroom specifies what is actually needed and where it goes, rather than handing the family a generic list from a catalog.

Typically four to twelve visits over several weeks, depending on the goals. Occupational therapy is usually shorter than physical therapy.

That is because once a task is adapted and taught, the client and caregiver carry it forward. The therapist is solving a specific problem rather than rebuilding a capacity over months.

Yes. The therapist teaches the adapted technique and the caregiver reinforces it daily, working from the same care plan.

That handoff is the difference between a method that works during the visit and one still being used six weeks later. About 12.4 percent of adults 65 and older living at home receive help with self-care or getting around indoors, and most of that help comes from someone who was never trained in how to give it.