Making Daily Life Easier with Occupational Therapy

If you’ve recently had an illness, injury, surgery or a condition that affects your day-to-day activities, interventions recommended by your occupational therapist can help promote safety and independence while alleviating stress and strain to make your daily routine easier and more efficient.

The goal of occupational therapy is to help people improve their ability to do daily tasks and live as independently as possible. It’s focused on helping you accomplish all your routine tasks and do your favorite activities safely. One of the ways to do this is to use interventions.

Interventions for a Safer and More Accommodating Home

Interventions are tools, resources, or other changes in your home or routine that help you complete your daily tasks. One common intervention is the use of assistive equipment such as a shower chair, reacher, dressing stick or toilet riser.

Other common interventions are environmental modifications, which are changes to your home most of which are minor. These can include:

• Bathroom modifications and recommendations (i.e. grab bars, handicap height toilet, various types of showers)
• Lever handles to make opening doors and turning on/off faucets easier
• Proper lighting
• Entry-way recommendations (i.e. seating options, stair rails, ramp)
• Surface height recommendations
• Kitchen modifications and organization recommendations (i.e. moving commonly used items to make them more accessible)
• Doorway modifications (i.e. offset hinges to allow for a walker or wheelchair to fit through doorways)
• Smart home technology (i.e. smart lightbulbs connected to a phone app or household items controlled by Alexa or other voice operated device)
• Recommendations for floor coverings

Environmental modifications can vary based on your injury or condition. It is important that you don’t make a modification without consulting your occupational therapist to ensure that the modification is individualized to your needs, is safe and installed correctly.

Sources: FRHS Occupational Therapy, American Occupational Therapy Association