The power of the Rehabilitate OT Support Team and Client Community in facilitating the Rehabilitate OT to help their clients achieve rehab goals

To highlight the benefit of getting Rehabilitate OTTI’s* involved and/or suggesting the client community** to a Rehabilitate client - I thought I’d tell my clients story.

When I got involved last year, my client had very little insight into their head injury and it’s consequences; orthopaedic injuries that had stopped them from doing their favourite hobbies of baking and gardening and they were no longer working.

My client came along with me to the Rehabilitate client community Christmas party, where at first she was a rabbit in headlights, but she met another client who had gone through a similar litigation experience and who had “come out of the other side”. They have continued to meet with other ladies both on zoom and in person (facilitated by the client community OT Lead) having conversations about rehab and the litigation process.

In January, one of our OTTI’s got involved to help me work through my client's GAS goals, cognitive rehab, upper limb rehab and vocational rehab - the OTTI visited twice a week up to 2.5 hours a session. I couldn't have done all this alone and it would have taken me well over 12 months (at least) to get through everything the OTTI has managed to do. Leaving me to work on other things.

It hasn’t been without my client getting anxious, thinking she is being “tested” and wanting everything to come to an end! Sounds familiar??

I completed a job demand analysis at the client community challenge party. My client has been offered a job at a local factory to make sandwiches and cake/scones for the workers to order. As with lots of other client community events, the client challenge party was ran for our clients by our clients (as much as possible) and this meant my client used it as an opportunity to achieve one of her goals by preparing the delicious food. She was able to experience what she is going to do in her job and where we have to put in some strategies.

The party showed how far she has come; on our way home she said:

“I have finally realised what you are doing is not finding the negatives and not being able to something, you are finding a way of me being able to do it”.

Sara (Rehabilitate Clinical Specialist Occupational Therapist)

?*OTTIs are OT Technical Instructors and are part of the Rehabilitate OT Support Team who work on cases where a Rehabilitate OT is instructed.

** The Rehabilitate client community supports Rehabilitate clients only.

Sent from my iPhone