When illness or injury prevents an individual from performing life’s
daily tasks, Occupational Therapists can help reduce their patient’s
physical limitations by improving muscle strength, desensitizing painful
areas and enhancing behavioral and cognitive skills. Through occupational
therapy, patients improve self-care abilities and acquire skills to regain
or maintain maximum function and ability to return to the activities of
daily living.
Catawba Valley Medical Center (CVMC) recognizes April as Occupational Therapy
month in honor of their occupational therapists who through their skill
and guidance help patients return to everyday activities.
“Occupational therapy enables people of all ages to live life to
its fullest by promoting good health and supporting the prevention of
or recovery from injury, illness, or disability,” said Ava Jarrett,
CVMC administrator of rehabilitation services and physical therapy. “Occupational
therapy at Catawba Valley Medical Center is designed for each patient
individually and is supported by data, experience, and best practices
that have been developed and proven over time.”
Occupational therapists and occupational therapy assistants focus on “doing”
whatever occupations or activities are meaningful to the individual. It
is occupational therapy’s purpose to get beyond problems to the
solutions that can bring normalcy back to the patient’s life. These
solutions may include adapting the way a task is accomplished, changing
the surroundings or helping individuals to alter behaviors. Through their
therapeutic approaches, occupational therapy professionals help individuals
design their lives, develop needed skills, adjust their environments at
home, school, or work and build health-promoting habits and routines that
will allow them to thrive.
CVMC’s occupational therapy services include day-to-day skills enhancement,
visual perception, stroke recovery, cognitive retraining and patient and
family education. To learn more about CVMC’s Occupational Therapy
services, contact Ms. Jarrett at 828/326-2278.
Catawba Valley Medical Center is a not-for-profit, public healthcare system
in Hickory, providing and promoting the physical, mental, emotional and
spiritual well-being of the public in addition to serving as a center
for health education, wellness services, preventative medicine and acute
care. CVMC, three times recognized by the American Nurses Credentialing
Center as a Magnet facility, was recently named as a “Distinguished
Hospital for An Outstanding InPatient Experience” by J.D. Power
and Associates as well as a Hospital of Choice by the American Alliance
of Healthcare Providers.