Instuctions For The Occupational Therapist

Instructions For The OT
This book was written byoccupational therapists foroccupational
therapists. We hope it will empower you and your patients. The idea for
the book came about because of the many challenges we experienced as
clinicians, such as limited treatment time and lack of both staffing and
financial resources. As a result, we felt our creativity, energy, and
ultimately, our treatment suffered. As contract occupational therapists
working in a variety of treatment settings, we realized we were not alone
with these problems.

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Each treatment category has two levels of difficulty, level aand level b. Level aactivities are easier while the level bactivities are more challenging. For example, the occupational therapist may turn to the

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			Fine Motor level atreatment category and explain to a patient that he/she may choose any activity within the section. The patient is encouraged to choose an activity that looks meaningful, enjoyable, or purposeful to him/her. Each activity is written so that a patient has all of the information needed to gather the supplies, perform the activity, and cleanup. This truly allows maximal independence and a feeling of accomplishment. Of course, not all patients will be able to complete every activity independently and, depending upon the patient's capabilities, supervision may be needed. Regardless, the activity will encourage the patient to function as independently as possible throughout the activity. To allow your patients maximal independence using this book, we recommend that the supply list at the beginning of each treatment category be used to organize boxes of supplies needed for each of the areas. We suggest making a copy of the supply list for each treatment category and affixing it to the appropriate box to ease in maintaining supplies. There is also a master supply list organized alphabetically and by category starting on page 7that may be helpful ingathering all of the supplies. We have intentionally selected or modified activities to encourage purposeful and creative use of inexpensive, commonly found items that fit within most any occupational therapy department budget. Many unique activities were chosen to meet a variety of patient interests, encourage new interests and serve as a springboard for creative activity analysis. Many of the activities are appropriate for use in a home program. A patient may start an activity in the clinic, stop theactivity for individual treatment time, and then continue the activity later on his/her own. The activities may be copied and used as teaching tools for caregivers. Use the activities tosave you valuable time in explaining a treatment idea to be carried out at home. Empower yourself with creative, purposeful treatment activities at your fingertips. Use the book as a quick reference when your time or energy is limited. The activities can be used as they are written or you may adapt them to fit your specific patient needs. Increase your scope of ideas and free your time for enjoyable, purposeful, and motivating treatment.
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Instructions For The OT This book was written byoccupational therapists foroccupational therapists. We hope it will empower you and your patients. The idea for the book came about because of the many challenges we experienced as clinicians, such as limited treatment time and lack of both staffing and financial resources. As a result, we felt our creativity, energy, and ultimately, our treatment suffered. As contract occupational therapists working in a variety of treatment settings, we realized we were not alone with these problems.


	Each treatment category has two levels of difficulty, level aand level b. Level aactivities are easier while the level bactivities are more challenging. For example, the occupational therapist may turn to the
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