Occupational Therapy Parkinson's Disease

What Is Parkinson’s Disease

Occupational Therapy & Parkinsons Disease

Parkinson’s Disease is a progressive, neurological condition where nerve cells in the brain stop working over time, and therefore cannot produce the chemical dopamine. Dopamine sends signals to the brain triggering it to produce smooth, fluid and controlled movement. Without dopamine, movement can become slower and more difficult.

Occupational Therapy And Carers

Occupational therapists can advise your carer and family how to support you in staying independent. They can also advise on ways to look after their own health.

It is important that your family and carers are also involved in, and understand, any changes the occupational therapist recommends to your usual routines. Getting help and advice from an experienced therapist can reduce the amount of help you need from your family or carer and so alleviate any pressure they may feel.

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How Does Physical Therapy Help Parkinsons Disease

Physical therapy cannot cure Parkinsons disease, because at this time, neurological damage cannot be reversed. But therapy can help you compensate for the changes brought about by the condition. These compensatory treatments, as theyre called, include learning about new movement techniques, strategies, and equipment. A physical therapist can teach you exercises to strengthen and loosen muscles. Many of these exercises can be performed at home. The goal of physical therapy is to improve your independence and quality of life by improving movement and function and relieving pain.

Physical therapy can help with:

Balance problems

Important note: Some physical therapists may apply diathermy to relieve muscle aches and pains. This could be dangerous to patients who have deep brain stimulators.

Occupational Therapy For People With Parkinsons

Second edition

The last eight years have seen a rapid growth in the evidence base across a broad range of treatments for Parkinsons, including evaluation of the impact of occupational therapy.

This second edition of guidance for occupational therapists will help practitioners to deliver effective and evidence-based care when working with people living with Parkinsons.

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Occupational Therapy and Parkinsons Disease

We are proud to have you as a part of our community. To ensure you receive the latest Parkinsons news, research updates and more, please check your email for a message from us. If you do not see our email, it may be in your spam folder. Just mark as not spam and you should receive our emails as expected.

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Using An Adaptive Keyboard

There are adaptive keyboards and specific software programs that can help to decrease typing mistakes and make the process of typing on a computer easier. There are also speech-to-text options which allow you to dictate what you want to write and eliminate the need for typing altogether. An OT consultation can help set you up with these options.

One trick that I recommend frequently which helps people use their computer is changing the cursor setting so that it tracks more slowly across the screen when you use your mouse. Slowing down the cursor can help make it easier to see and control. In addition, you can change the sensitivity of your mouse to make it easier to control.

Occupational Therapy For Parkinsons

Occupational therapy is the only profession that helps people across the lifespan to do things they want to do through the use of therapeutic activities . Occupational therapists enable people of all ages to live life to its fullest by helping them promote health and prevent or live better with injury, illness or disability.

OT interventions focus on adapting the environment through modifications, modifying the task, teaching a skill and educating the person, care partner and family in order to increase participation and ability to perform daily activities. OT is practical and customizable, focusing especially on activities that are important and meaningful to each specific person.

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How Many Physical Therapy Visits Will I Need

Treatments in physical therapy often can be completed in one to three office visits. The first appointment includes an evaluation and recommendations for exercises. The following appointments check your progress and review and expand your home program. Most hospitals can provide additional sessions of outpatient therapy if needed.

Big Things Learned About Treating Patients With Parkinsons Through Lsvt Big

Parkinson’s Disease Thinking Changes: Engaging Occupational Therapy

As three of the faculty for the LSVT BIG Training and Certification Course, we have had the incredible opportunity to learn from each other over the years. Although each of us has unique backgrounds and paths that led us to become Occupational Therapists, we share a common passion for helping people with Parkinsons disease .

We have also realized there are common themes in the lessons we have each learned and in ways we have changed our approach to treating patients with PD since becoming LSVT BIG Certified.

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How Aquatic Therapy Helps Manage Parkinsons Symptoms

Hydrotherapy treats a wide range of illnesses and orthopedic or chronic disorders. Among them are many conditions related to strength and balance. While aquatic exercise for Parkinsons disease does not reduce all risks of falls which is a key concern among many Parkinsons patients it can be beneficial by strengthening the core and improving muscle memory.

The Potential Assessment Tools For The Patient With Parkinsons Disease And Setting Goals

As mentioned earlier, Parkinsons disease has multiple effects on the patients performance of the daily activities is characterised by the motor as well as cognitive impairment. This tendency occurs because the same processes in the patients brains that lead to the limitation of physical abilities create cognitive problems such as memory problems and slowness in thinking.

As a concept, cognition is challenging to define for since it refers to a multitude of functions and capacities such as the perception of the world around, making sense of information, applying knowledge, learning, storing and retrieving memorised information, solving problems, using language, planning tasks and activities, forming insights, to name a few.

Attempting to measure the cognitive impacts of Parkinsons disease, the researchers presented a variety of conflicting and inconsistent data . This tendency occurred because, in different studies, the authors used different tools to assess the effects of the condition on the mental capacity of the affected individuals . Approaching the impairments from various perspectives, the tools generated diverse results. The tools and tests available today provide the professionals with an ability to assess even the mildest impacts of Parkinsons disease on the cognitive capacities of the patients that they do not notice in daily life.

Parkinsons Disease And Occupational Therapy: Helping People To Live Better With Their Pd Symptoms

If youre living with Parkinsons Disease an Occupational Therapist may be able to help you achieve your goals so you can perform better to live better.

Whether youre frustrated by your ability to perform everyday tasks, had a fall or perhaps youve experienced a decline in confidence to manage at home?

Whatever your situation, these are all very real and all too common experiences many people affected by PD, maybe much like you, have on a regular basis.

We would like to help.

No intervention can reverse or cure Parkinsons disease. This has been real frustration for many people, maybe much like you as well as David Norris our Senior OT who is passionate about providing Parkinsons Disease occupational therapy services.

How To Exercise With Parkinsons

Guideline for Occupational Therapy in Parkinson

Whether youre a first-time exerciser or a lifelong athlete, the key to working out with Parkinsons is to safely and regularly move your body in a variety of ways. Your fitness regimen should include these four main categories of exercise:

Aerobic activity
Balance, agility, and multi-task exercises

People with Parkinsons should strive to perform aerobic activity at least three times weekly and to complete exercises from the other categories two to three times each week.

In total, the Parkinsons Foundation suggests performing 150 minutes of moderate tovigorous exercise weekly.

To help you achieve this goal, try these helpful tips:

Invest in a treadmill, elliptical, or exercise bike. This will make it convenient to perform aerobic exercise from your home, regardless of the weather.
Obtain a set of light hand weights from a local exercise shop or thrift store. These can be used for a wide variety of strength training exercises.
Follow along with one of the many online exercise classes on YouTube that are tailored to people with Parkinsons disease. The Parkinsons Foundation and the Davis Phinney Foundation offer many great online exercise videos.
Connect with a workout buddy by finding a local Parkinsons support group associated with the American Parkinson Disease Association

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Individualized Occupational Therapy Interventions

Two Level 1b RCTs provide evidence related to guidelines-based, comprehensive, individualized occupational therapy interventions to address IADL function in people with PD. A large, multicenter, pragmatic RCT tested occupational therapy based on the U.K. National Health Service guidelines that was provided in an average of four 1-hr sessions over 8 wk in community and outpatient settings . The intervention focused on transfers, dressing, grooming, sleep, fatigue, indoor mobility, household tasks, and other environmental issues and had no significant effect on clinician-rated IADL performance. A multicenter assessor-blind RCT tested occupational therapy following the Dutch national practice guidelines that was provided for an average of eight 1-hr sessions over 10 wk in the home . The intervention included self-management, coaching, and skills training for compensatory strategies, task and routine simplification, adaptive equipment, and environmental modification and had significant effects on reported IADL participation but not on IADL performance. Together, these studies provide moderate strength of evidence that comprehensive individualized occupational therapy interventions can improve IADL participation but low strength of evidence that it can improve IADL performance.

S5: S3 OR S4

S6: S1 AND S2 AND S5

Treating Parkinsons Disease With Aquatic Therapy

Physical therapy and exercise regimens, like hydrotherapy, are quickly becoming prominent methods for treating a variety of illnesses, including neurodegenerative disorders like Parkinsons. Hydrotherapy adds specific advantages for many Parkinsons patients. As someone who owns or manages a physical therapy clinic, you can introduce aquatics for your existing Parkinsons patients. It may even help you attract new Parkinsons patients to your facility.

After Alzheimers disease, Parkinsons disease is the second most common neurological condition American adults face. Physicians often treat the disorder with heavy medications, which potentially yield unintended or unwanted side effects.

You may be wondering, Is aquatic therapy effective for Parkinsons? Hydrotherapy offers an alternative form of treatment which can be used in combination with drug therapies to produce improved results.

Aquatic therapy has been used to help people like Virginia Bishop, who suffered from Parkinsons disease as well as multiple sclerosis. She used aquatic sessions to increase her activity levels, improve core strength and build stamina. Her results included regaining the ability to tend to daily tasks, as well as play the piano.

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How Long Does The Lsvt Program Last

The LSVT BIG program is 16 sessions: four consecutive days per week for four weeks. Each session lasts one hour. There is daily homework practice as well. Once a person graduates from LSVT BIG with the skilled therapy sessions, the recommendation is to continue the exercises daily.

At our clinic, we have occupational therapy, physical therapy and speech-language pathology all under one roof. Occupational and physical therapy combine to provide the frequency of services each week, which allows us to address a vast number of a persons concerns in that four-week period.

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What Is Occupational Therapy And How Can It Help With Parkinsons Disease

Parkinson’s Motor Symptoms Co-Management: Occupational Therapy and Neurology

Occupational therapy is a branch of rehabilitative medicine that focuses on the performance of the activities required for independent daily living. like those mentioned above and others.

Occupational therapists who specialize in PD are experts in devising ways to help you maximize your movement and quality of life. In the past, we interviewed PD occupational therapists who specialized in:

Driving cessation

Unlike physical therapists who help with improving body movements, as well as strengthening balance, body alignment and range of motion, occupational therapists focus on the activities and tasks of daily life to promote independence and productivity. Plenty of people with PD will work with both types of therapists as part of their treatment plan.

Tell Us About Your Fathers Parkinsons

Let me first say that my parents are my heroes, and my 88-year-old father has always been bigger than life! Since my dads Parkinsonâs diagnosis four years ago, I have had an insiders view of his daily life and struggles with Parkinsons. He was a very strong man but developed severe back problems and the back pain became debilitating as he aged.

Unfortunately, Dad experienced complications after surgery that confined him to a wheelchair. Many hours of therapy and exercise enabled him to walk short distances, care for his own basic needs, and return home. As an occupational therapist, I recognize that each person responds differently to obstacles and therapy. As a daughter, I am just so proud of his hard work and determination.

His Parkinsons, particularly tremors, has slowed his progress but medications are helpful. We remain flexible because what works for Dad today might need to be changed next month. I have been known to hear of a new product at a conference, find it online, and get it shipped to Dad before I leave the meeting. He is a good sport and will try each new item and give his review.

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What Is Parkinsons Disease

Parkinsonâs Disease is a progressive, neurological condition where nerve cells in the brain stop working over time, and therefore cannot produce the chemical dopamine. Dopamine sends signals to the brain triggering it to produce smooth, fluid and controlled movement. Without dopamine, movement can become slower and more difficult.

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Enabling A Cell Phones Accessibility Settings

Smartphones have many accessibility settings. An iPhone, for example, has numerous features for people with vision, motor, hearing and learning challenges. Click on the Settings icon and select Accessibility to see all the options.

Experiment with all the different settings that can help make using your smartphone easier. For example, you can set up your smartphone so that it responds to voice commands. You can also use speech-to-text on many smartphones or take advantage of the word prediction software. You can set up your cell phone so that it will ignore multiple touches or respond only to the first or last place that you touch. You may have to try different settings to see which one or combination best helps you use your cell phone.

Always remember, slowing down and avoiding multitasking while trying to use your phone can help minimize mistakes.

The above is just a sampling of what an OT can help you with. OTs can also help you better navigate additional daily tasks like dressing, bathing, and more.

Tip: Enhancing Hand Coordination

Occupational Therapy Exercises For Parkinsons Disease

We use our hands throughout the day in all activities. People with PD may notice changes in the ease in which they perform hand and finger motions. An occupational therapist can help evaluate and make recommendations to improve hand coordination:

Exercise hands and fingers regularly
Engage in enjoyable and stimulating hand exercises, such as gardening or knitting
Use toothbrushes, hairbrushes, silverware and writing tools with larger handles
Use both hands in tasks – dont favor one hand over the other
Schedule tasks that require greater hand control for times when you are well rested and medications are working well

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Occupational Therapy Interventions For People With Parkinsons Disease

Kelli Reiling Ott, OTD, OTR/L,Sherry Kolodziejczak, MS, OTR/L,

Kelli Reiling Ott, Sherry Kolodziejczak Occupational Therapy Interventions for People With Parkinsons Disease. Am J Occup Ther January/February 2022, Vol. 76, 7601390010. doi:

Evidence Connection articles provide a clinical application of the evidence from the systematic reviews developed in conjunction with the American Occupational Therapy Associations Evidence-Based Practice Project. In this Evidence Connection article, we describe a case report of an older adult recently diagnosed with Parkinsons disease. The occupational therapy assessment and intervention process in the outpatient clinic is described. This Evidence Connection article is based on findings from an AOTA systematic review on interventions within the scope of occupational therapy practice to improve and maintain participation in education, work, volunteering, and leisure and social activities among adults with Parkinsons disease. Each article in this series summarizes the evidence from the systematic reviews on a given topic and presents an application of the evidence as it relates to a clinical case. Evidence Connection articles illustrate how the research evidence from the reviews can inform and guide professional reasoning.

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Use Your Personal Strengths

How can you build on your strengths and minimize your limitations? For example, if you have the strength of helping children enjoy reading, you could exercise that strength by reading to your grandchildren, by listening to them as they read, or by playing a reading game that stimulates both your imagination and theirs.

One of your strengths may be thinking skills. One thinking skill is imagining doing the activity before doing it. For example, imagining writing big can actually help you write big. Another thinking skill is speaking the steps out loud. When combing your hair, try saying hold and comb, to avoid dropping the comb.

Make sure you are exercising. Improving strength, balance and endurance through exercise supports your participation in all sorts of activities. Whether it is dancing or walking to a neighbors house, find an enjoyable way to exercise.

Lastly, be positive. Think, I will do rather than Ill try to and you may be more successful.

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Occupational Therapy Parkinson’s Disease