Occupational Therapy Services for Parkinson's

 

     Occupational therapy is designed to increase the ability of patients with Parkinson’s disease to function as independently as possible when performing basic daily activities such as taking care of a family member or pet, cooking, cleaning, food shopping, and returning to work.

 

     To build independence, a process called remediation and compensation is used, in which the occupational therapist first analyses the physical, cognitive, perceptual and visual components needed to perform each activity and evaluates how well the Parkinson’s patient is functioning in each of these areas.

 

    The therapist then works with the patient to relearn these necessary physical, cognitive, perceptual, and visual skills while performing the actual activities. At the same time, the therapist also teaches compensatory techniques that make it easier to accomplish the tasks in question-including the use of adaptive equipment where appropriate.