Occupational Therapy's Role for Aging Population - Research Paper Example

Aging in place for the geriatric population and how Occupational Therapy plays an active role Aging in place for the geriatric population and how Occupational Therapy plays an active role The occupational therapy refers to a form of treatment that is aimed at assisting the elderly in the pursuit of living an independent life and remains productive. This involves working together with the therapist in order to regain the substantial skills that have been lost due to psychological or physical changes related to the process of aging. There are numerous therapists in the continuum of the health care especially in settings like the rehabilitation facilities, hospitals, home care and nursing facilities. The therapy focuses on the activities that are performed after a long stay in the rehabilitation center of long duration of hospitalization. The American Occupation Therapy Association refers to the therapy as a science driven and professionalism that is based on evidence that assists aging individuals to live life in full. The process involves the promoting their health and preventing including the care for those with any form of illness or injury. The therapy is focused on assisting those who want to do something, but they are not able due to their situations. The therapy also focuses on the patients’ occupation in terms of work, leisure, education, play, social participation and the sleeping duration (2011). The therapy also focuses on the activities that are meaningful to them in order to maximize the participation of the task completion. This will facilitate the independence of the individual, which will facilitate them to do what they desire to do without relying on the help of someone else to perform the task for them. Therefore, the aging considers the therapy being extremely valuable to them in their situation. The therapy focuses mainly on the activities that are considered crucial to the person. These activities include working, leisure and cooking. Various methods are used by the occupational therapist in order to increase the functionality of the individual to function independently. There are activities that are retrained by the therapist to the elderly: dressing, toileting, bathing, eating with the techniques that involve energy conservation for the completion of the home skills. The home skills comprise of shopping, personal management skills, cooking and housekeeping. The therapy also involves the strategies that assist to organize memory and activities like the use of public transport. There are other physical exercises meant to improve the person’s posture and increase the strength that is required for executing the routine operations. According to Gitlin, Hauck, Dennis, winter, Hodgson and Schinfeld (2009), there is the focus on the geriatric population that is mainly pursued through the various ways of assessment. These are in terms of multidisciplinary diagnostic instruments, multidimensional and the limitations that are presented in the elderly people. This involves the use of the relevant information in order to establish the treatment with the follow up plans and the arrangement of care and rehabilitation services. This helps to determine the long term requirement of care focusing on the optimum placement for the best referred consumption of the health care resources (AJOT, 2011).. However, the geriatric assessment may differ in terms of the standards of medical evaluation. This difference is perceived in these ways: focus on the elderly people with the problems that are considered to be complex. The other dimension is the emphasis on the functional status with the quality of life. The next one is the frequency that it takes the advantage for the team that focuses on the provision of interdisciplinary. A focus on the elderly patients deals with the standards of medical care in accordance with the problem related with elderly. The common problems that are with the elderly include immobility, instability, incontinence and impairment (AJOT, 1991). According to Depp and Jeste (2006), geriatric care focuses on the treatment and the prevention of diseases of people that are elderly. This is through the assessment of living of these individuals within their home and working environment. The treatment seeks to make recommendations on the changes that are required to improve their living, in terms of the social, work and leisure environment. This also seeks to find the replacement of the activities that cannot be performed by the elderly due to changes in the functionality. However, there is assistance that is needed in order for the person to adapt to the changes with the assistance of certain adaptive devices (AJOT, 1991). All this effort is aimed at contributing to the effective functionality of the occupational therapy. It also helps in the prevention of becoming debilitated physically due to the aging. This is through the promotion of health for the elderly who are not already affected by the problem of illness. Depp and Jeste (2006) argued that, this also involves cooperating with the caregivers and the family members in the effort of developing a plan that is proactive for the prevention of injuries through the modification of home environment. The therapy also advocates for the exercise including other activities that foster the flexibility. The therapy also focuses on the strengths and disadvantages of the performance of the task. It also includes the consideration to the environment that the operations will be conducted and the environmental impact to the individual’s health and wellbeing. This also involves the meeting of the societal occupation needs. This is done through helping the elderly in the pursuit of living their live in full (AJOT, 1991). There are modifications to the environment that are required like the additional lighting, rocker switches, and shower with a roll not having a curb. There should also be handles on the door with grab bars and an adjustment of the counter for the accessibility for the wheelchair. The occupational therapist specializes with the modification of the individual’s environment in the perspective of the aging conditions. This is facilitated by working together with the builders, interior designers, contractors and product vendors to ensure that all that is relevant to install the things that are required for the modification are available (AJOT, 2011). The occupational therapist focuses on the activities that involve the improvement of the strength, and dexterity with the activities that also improve the visual acuity thought the person’s ability to discern patterns. These activities are aimed at helping the individuals that have short-term memory. This also improves the coordination and making of an aid recall. Other exercises are focused on improving the coordination of hand-eye. According to Mann and Hicks (2009), there is also the application of technology in the occupation therapy, which involves the use of computer programs to improve the abstract reasoning, decision making and perceptual skills. There is a therapy that deals with elderly individuals with permanent disabilities. The technology is applied to assist those with problems like spinal cord injuries, muscular dystrophy and cerebral palsy. This is with peculiar equipment that are developed thorough technology in order to improve their living(Murphy, 2011). These are computer-aided equipment that is adaptive through the design for the needed home or at work. This equipment is focused on assisting the patient with the limitations that impede effective communication and socialization. This helps to gain control of the aspect of the environment. There is also concentration on the treatment of the individuals who have lost their functionality at work due to an impairment caused by the effect of aging. This involves the work plan activities, evaluation of the working conditions, the practitioner’s employments arrangement and the progress of the client accessibility (OT practice 2008). This could be enabled through the corroboration of the employee, therapist and the employer in order for the aging individual to deliver their services fully (Mann & Hicks, 2009). Therefore, the occupational therapy is considered to be of substantial benefit to the elderly population. These have assisted them to become active and live independent lives by the use of a variety of methods, which uses the adaptive equipment. The therapist should have specialized training to be effective in the rehabilitation access to the individual abilities. The evaluation that is conducted by the therapist enables them to make recommendations for the adaptive equipment that is to be used by the elderly patient. The adaptive equipment entails of those that assist in the establishment of the driving independence or other transportation alternative. The therapist also joins the patient to identify the issues in the environment that can cause the fall. This also involves the establishment of the activities, which are meant to assist the individual to make the effective use of the supportive equipment, for the better part of improving the lives of the aging people. Therefore, this equipment is also perceived to be crucial in the lives of the individual patient or elderly person. According to OT practice (2008), the therapist records the patient’s activities and progress achieved. These records are crucial for the evaluation of the effect of therapy to the life of the patient, and the documents are used to report to the physicians that can also assist in offering the relevant health care to the same patient (Linda, 1991). When a problem is detected by the community health worker, there is an assessment that is conducted using the documentation in order to help in the establishment of potential problems. There is the need to have a flexible scope for the content of providing services to the range of the different patients. On the other hand, in the focus on the geriatric population the assessment is performed by multiple personnel that are competent with the elders that have multiple problems and limitations in functions. This is with an interdisciplinary team representing medicine, social work, nutrition, psychiatry and occupational therapy. This also involves the detailed assessment in order to analyze the performance with the help of the intervention strategy that initiates the treatment. Conclusively, the occupational therapy is regarded to be particularly substantial to the elderly population for assistance in the improvement of the individual’s life despite the disadvantages that affect their functionality negatively due to the aging effect. However, it is related to the geriatric treatment in that it is considered as an element of the entire treatment process together with other processes. According to Rudman (2006), the implications of the occupation therapy are to assist the elderly in a more effective way. This would need the integration of technology in the process that is aimed at improving the lives of the elderly population and the geriatric population. References Depp, C.A., & Jeste, D.V. (2006). Definitions and predictors of successful aging: A comprehensive review of larger quantitative studies. American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 14 (1), 6-20. Gitlin, L. N., Hauck, W. W., Dennis, M. P., Winter, L., Hodgson, N., & Schinfeld, S. (2009). Long-term effect on mortality of a home intervention that reduces functional difficulties in older adults:  Results from a randomized trial. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 57(3), 476-481.  Linda B. T. (1991). Occupational Therapy in the Department of Veterans Affairs: Focus on Health Care of the Elderly Veteran. The American journal of occupation therapy. Retrieved on 12 March 2012 from < http://ajot.aotapress.net/content/45/7/613.full.pdf+html?sid=0b655487-13fe-4525-9acb-f620bdb97362> Mann, W.C., & Hicks, E.E. (2009). Products and technology.  In B.R. Bonder & V. Del-Bello-Haas (Eds.), Functional performance in older adults (3rd ed., pp. 591-608). Philadelphia: FA Davis. OT practice. (2008). Active Aging Week. Retrieved on 13 March 2012 from Rudman, L.D. (2006). Reflections on positive aging and its implications for occupational possibilities in later life. Canadian Journal of Occupational Therapy, 73(3), 188-192. Murphy L. S. (2011). Update on Geriatric Research in Productive Aging. The American journal of occupation therapy. Revived on 12 March from < http://ajot.aotapress.net/content/65/2/197.full.pdf+html?sid=0b655487-13fe-4525-9acb-f620bdb97362 > Read More