24 Oct

What is an occupational therapy?

Since the beginning of civilizations, many of them associated disease with lack of activity, for which they promoted health through movement activities or physical training. In the fifth century, the Greeks recommended activities based on the type of problem to heal physical and mental illnesses. They also mentioned that occupations should be assigned according to the personality and interests of each person. Later in the Renaissance, studies focused on the analysis of movement and on seeking prevention rather than treatment.

During the 18th century the origins of what would be occupational therapy appeared, the French doctor Philip Pinel, began to prescribe physical exercise and manual occupation as a therapeutic means to treat mental illnesses.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), occupational therapy is defined as:

” The set of techniques, methods and actions that, through activities applied for therapeutic purposes, prevents and maintains health, favors the restoration of function, supplies the disabling deficits and assesses the behavioral assumptions and their profound significance to achieve the greater independence and possible reintegration of the individual in all its aspects: labor, mental, physical and social ”

Occupational therapy offers interesting possibilities when it comes to promoting active aging and promoting the independence or autonomy of older people in the performance of daily tasks, to achieve a higher quality of life.

Currently there are various types of occupational therapies, ranging from intergenerational encounters or ludotherapy (activities with the hands), to hydrotherapy, music therapy, therapy with animals or the recent virtual therapies.

In short, the benefits offered by the technical performance of occupational therapy are:

– Prevent possible physical injuries through muscular exercises, improving coordination.

– Obtain a learning of beneficial postures, especially in people who are bedridden.

– Allow the development of motor skills, as well as cognitive and memory stimulation.

– Implement the use of assistive technology to improve care.

– Improve functional capacity through tasks and exercises.

– Integrate the elderly in the immediate environment to their needs where they must live, to achieve their adaptation.

– Encourage intergenerational encounters to share experiences and memories.

– Achieve support and facilitate the relationship with the family.

At CasaMar we implement various therapies that constantly seek the improvement of the elderly. Visit us and learn more about our services!