Occupational Therapy

Education

All of our occupational therapy staff are graduates of an occupational therapy curriculum accredited jointly by the council on medical education of the AMA and the American Occupational Therapy Association and have obtained (and current) a California State license for Occupational Therapy or Occupational Therapy Assistant.

Duties and Responsibilities

An Occupational Therapist assists the patient’s physician in evaluating the patient’s functional, motor, perceptual-motor, and sensory-integrative ability by administering diagnostic and prognostic tests.

The Occupational Therapist develops a plan of treatment through recognition of the patient’s needs and goals, conditions and environment, and consultation with other health team members.

The Occupational Therapist then administers treatment procedures and rehabilitative activities as prescribed by the physician. Some example treatments of Occupational Therapy services are:

• Therapeutic use of functional or restorative activities of daily living: homemaking, splinting, and upper extremity, orthotic/prosthetic training, and perceptual-motor training.
• Selects and teaches task-oriented therapeutic activities designed to restore functional ability.
• Devises and implements therapeutic tasks and activities to restore sensory-integrative function.
• Teaches compensatory techniques designed to improve the level of independence in activities of daily living.
• Devises, constructs and fits orthotic, prosthetic, and self-help devices and instructs and supervises patient and family in their use.
• Teaches prevocational, vocational, and avocational activities.