MidAmerica Orthopaedics’ Certified Hand Therapists (CHT) use occupation-based hand therapy to help patients return to a productive lifestyle. This type of hand therapy has benefits specific to improving the activities of daily living that a patient partakes in.

What is Occupation-Based Hand Therapy?

Occupational or occupation-based therapy is a type of rehab that helps people overcome the effects of a condition or injury so that they can return to the things that they want and need to do. Occupation-based hand therapy focuses more specifically on the hands and upper extremities.

What makes occupation-based hand therapy stand out from physical therapy is the added element of a client-centered approach. The focus is on identifying the participation needs of the patient. In this context, “occupation” specifically refers to activities or functions each individual patient uses in their daily life in order to fulfil their job roles, enjoy hobbies or leisure time, or to perform everyday activities.

What are the Benefits of Occupation-Based Hand Therapy?

The primary benefit of occupation-based hand therapy is not only to restore function to biomechanical issues, but to restore the ability to perform the activities that mean the most to each patient to give them a rewarding lifestyle, physically and mentally.

Patients typically encounter:

• Increased psychological well-being, feeling a sense of normalcy by practicing familiar roles and habits
• Increased motivation for therapy participation as it represents a return to their normal way of living
• A stronger patient/therapist partnership as the patient plays an integral part in their own recovery and goals

Incorporating a patient’s usual occupational activities into their treatment can improve their desire and willingness to actively partake in therapy, often leading to reaching their goals faster and with more accuracy.

Specifically, at MidAmerica Ortho, you can expect to experience these benefits:

• Directed care under the supervision of your orthopaedic doctor
• Experienced care by our Certified Hand Therapists
• Results-driven and progressive injury-specific rehab
• Maximized functional outcome
• Restoration of your normal upper extremity function in the shortest time possible

What Does Occupation-Based Hand Therapy Help With?

Despite its name, occupation-based hand therapy is not restricted to helping the hand only. Hand therapy is used to treat the arms, hands, wrists, shoulders, elbows, and forearms. Generally, patients seeking our care have an orthopaedic-based injury or chronic condition and may or may not have had surgery.

Our occupational therapists can help treat:

• Injured tendons
• Injured nerves
• Fractures
• Carpal tunnel syndrome
• Tennis elbow
• Arthritis
• And more

Occupation-Based Hand Therapy for Work Related Injuries

Upper extremity and orthopaedic-based injuries are common on-the-job injuries. When a work injury occurs, we focus on the rare philosophy of providing both exceptional and thorough care and treatment for our patients while also getting them safely back to work in a timely manner to help save on costs and stress.

As part of our Occupational Medicine Program, we can provide on-site occupational therapy. Since our occupation-based hand therapy focuses on the performance of daily life tasks as well as conditioning prior to returning to work, our patients and their employers can feel confident in a safe return when the time is right.

If you are interested in learning if you’re a candidate for occupation-based hand therapy, contact us at (708) 237-7200 to schedule an appointment. We can help you return to the life you love so that you aren’t living with pain or loss of motion for the rest of your life.