Adults and Older People
Lothian Occupational Therapy combine clinical knowledge and expertise to assess and evaluate the difficulties you or your family member are having in life. Using a robust model of observation and clinical analysis to determine the cause of decreased function and providing practical solutions to over come these.
To develop a deep understanding of the problems you or your loved one are having, initial visits will include a thorough review of physical and psychological health, continence, medications, previous functional levels and current functional levels. Following this in-depth conversation, we will observe you functioning around your own environment. This can be getting in and out of your chair, bed and shower, making a hot drink or other daily tasks that you might be struggling with.
During this comprehensive assessment we will make suggestions and recommendations on what could make things easier, how to prevent falls and increase your stamina and well-being as well as your safety. We also advise on using equipment to help you, such as walking aids, raised toilet seats and grab rails. Having worked closely with home care agencies, we also advise on when and what type of care and support you can have at home and how to access this in the most cost effective way.
We treat you as a whole person, looking at your physical, psychological and emotional needs of you and your family. We look out for areas of concern, such as, safety from falls, safeguarding and pressure care. Below we describe some common problems we see with some advice on how to cope better. If you want to discuss our therapy services, please get in touch. We offer many practical solutions to difficulties you may be experiencing.
Case Examples
Mr D was recently discharged home from hospital and was finding things harder than he had thought. Lothian Occupational Therapy was able to promptly visit him at home, complete a full holistic assessment of his needs, running a review of daily routine, health conditions, mobility and transfers and care requirements.
Following this assessment we put in a raised toilet seat, bed rail and walking trolley. We provided advice on falls prevention, how to maintain stamina and completed visits over several days to practice exercises and ensure he was improving.
Mrs F was living alone in sheltered accommodation. However, her memory was causing concern for her family. Lothian Occupational Therapy carried out weekly visits to assess and monitor her functional abilities and ensure her safety and check that her carers were remaining on top of her needs.
We also fitted clocks for enhancing orientation and fitted a key safe to prevent her from having to remember where her keys were. We also fitted falls alarms and other aids to enhance orientation. On one occasion we found the fire alarm beeping as it was out of batteries, we soon got that sorted!
Frequently we discarded rotten food from the fridge and provided reminders to carers to check for rotten food, soiled clothing and general household maintenance.
We go above and beyond in our care, and this wouldn't be the first time we've assisted our client to change their clothes and have a shower. Sometimes it's the little things that enhance occupational performance.
Falls and fractures in older people are often preventable.
The causes of having a fall are multifactorial – a fall is the result of the interplay of multiple risk factors. These include: muscle weakness; poor balance; visual impairment; polypharmacy – and the use of certain medicines; environmental hazards; and some specific medical conditions might make a person more likely to fall.
Ms M had a few falls and called us to help. We reviewed and advised on all of the above factors in Ms M's care and visited over several weeks to take Ms M on a walk outside to build her confidence, stamina and mood. We didn't need to be involved for long, but we made a difference to her independence.
