Oh wait a minute, no hands. A moment's distraction, and suddenly you're Lori Risner's patient. And return to you the usefulness of your entire life. A lot of these injuries can disrupt a person's entire life and depression sets in when they can't function the way they used to. If you have your health, you have everything.
Occupational therapy draws a direct link between healing and doing.
Unlike other modes of therapy that provide treatment to bring the patient ever closer to being whole again, occupational therapy uses the actual tasks of everyday living as the key component of the treatment plan itself. The carpenter, for example, who must learn to use his tools again is tasked with actually hammering that nail or screwing that screw. Slowly his motor skills, range of motion and strength might be returned to him as he concentrates on the job, not the exercise of the job. Tools for the hands to build doorways for the mind. So what we try to do is set our patients up with tasks that come close to that activity level.