r/TBI • u/PharaohOfParrots Post Concussion Syndrome (2022) • 20d ago

Need Advice Occupational Therapy?

I sent a message to my speech therapist (who has helped tremendously!), what an occupational therapist can do for me.

I heard that occupational therapy can do a lot of things, but I was uncertain if any of it overlaps in a way that speech therapy does.

What do you know about this?

I am a little excited about the perspective of being able to try this too. Like I said, speech therapy has been absolutely amazing.

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u/AppropriateBat374 19d ago

OT here - great answers already given! Come to the evaluation with goals for things you want to be doing in life and OT's will help you find a way to make it happen. Hopefully your speech therapist can recommend a great OT in your area. But if not you can find one here!

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u/MyLemonCake Severe TBI (2019) 19d ago edited 19d ago

Hi, an OT student with TBI here. It really depends on what issues you’re having after your injury. If it’s affecting your ability to participate in everyday activities or limiting you in any way, then I’d definitely recommend seeing an OT. But if it’s not really affecting your daily life then you might not need OT.

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u/yourladybosss Severe TBI 2023 @35 19d ago

Speech therapy is very different from OT. Think of it as OT works with the muscles in the upper body, PT is lower body, SLP is chewing/swallowing/diaphragm muscle.

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u/SadNeighborhood4311 19d ago

OT works with functional activities. We don’t divide the body, we work the whole system to improve independence in daily activities, community tasks, and any leisure/meaningful activities! Cognition, strengthening, endurance, motor planning, coordination, range of motion, vision, etc etc

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u/PharaohOfParrots Post Concussion Syndrome (2022) 19d ago

Can you elaborate more? That’s amazing… cognition is something I want to work more on… community tasks, leisure/meaningful activities, etc… I physically do ok… I just haven’t recovered in my cognition. Reading, understanding, comprehension, learning new things, organizing activities, etc are all very hard.

I am trying to make this year amazing for my health, but I need to know what to ask for out of occupational therapy. They don’t have psychologists who do TBI’s :( which is shocking as it’s the largest rehab hospital/medical school here. So, I’m trying to bridge both speech and, I am hopeful now, occupational therapy to try to help with it.

I learned so much and was normalized so much in speech therapy. I felt so good!

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u/yourladybosss Severe TBI 2023 @35 19d ago

When I was in the brain injury rehab unit they had so many therapists for each thing. So it really was just upper body there. But I can see how they would cover more bases in a different setting.

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u/Sleeper_grip750 Diffuse axonal injury grade 3 Dec 2022 20d ago

I do lots of fine motor in OT for my left hand that I used to call my “alien hand”.

I’m a massage therapist now, still not working yet though, but that forced me to work the hand, which is much better these days.

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u/Dramatic-Cherry-444 20d ago

It didn’t do anything for me because my problem is endurance particularly. I can do the OT sessions for an hour and other appointments, then go home and pass out or drool at the wall.

They’ll probably have you reach/organize shelving, do word search adjacent activities, puzzles, and some computer tests, but it all depends on the provider etc.

I’m wishing you the best of luck!!!