Physical and Occupational Therapy
Physical and occupational therapy may help reduce or stabilize your spasticity and improve your daily function. This type of therapy usually takes place in a clinic or hospital, or at home with a physical or occupational therapist. It is often combined with other treatments.
Your therapist will design a treatment to help you:
- Improve muscle tone
- Maintain or improve range of motion and mobility
- Increase strength and coordination
- Improve your general care and comfort
Physical therapists typically concentrate on improving strength and large-motor skills, like those needed for transferring and walking. Occupational therapists usually focus on improving fine-motor skills, like those you use to eat, bathe, and dress.
Sometimes, a physical therapist and an occupational therapist may work together to increase strength, mobility, and dexterity.
When full recovery is not possible, the occupational therapist can help you and your family members make changes to your environment – at school, home, or the workplace – to best suit your needs. Occupational therapists can develop adaptive interventions, which include changes to the physical structure, such as designing wheelchair accessibility, as well as the creation of orthotics, assistive devices, or alternative methods of completing tasks. In addition, they can assist you and your family members in overcoming psychological, social, and environmental factors that may get in the way of functioning independently.