Occupational Therapy in North Palm Beach

What occupational therapy actually does

Physical therapy asks how well you move. Occupational therapy asks what you need to get done, then works backward from there — the shirt buttoned, the meal cooked, the job performed, the shower taken safely and alone. Our program is led by a founder who is himself an occupational therapist and has been treating patients since 1991. Here is what the work looks like in practice.

Activities of daily living

Dressing, bathing, grooming, cooking and home management are the tasks independence actually rests on, and they are the first things an injury, a stroke or a joint replacement takes away. Therapy here is practical and specific: we work on the real task you are struggling with, in the sequence you actually perform it, and adapt the method until you can do it without help.

Recovery after stroke

Stroke recovery is task-specific work. Rather than exercising an arm in the abstract, we rebuild the routines that arm is needed for, restoring upper-extremity function, coordination and the daily sequences that make a morning possible. Progress is measured in tasks regained, not repetitions completed.

Returning to a specific job

Return-to-work programs are built around what your job actually demands rather than a general strength target. We use graded conditioning and task simulation so the work you rehearse in the clinic resembles the work waiting for you, which is also what an employer, an adjuster or a case manager needs to see documented before a release.

Hurt at work, or worried you will be

Many of the people our occupational therapists treat are working age, and the goal is usually specific: back to the job, safely, without the injury coming back. That means the hands, wrists, elbows and shoulders, repetitive strain, and the individual tasks a job is built from. Treatment rehearses those tasks at the weights, heights and pace the job actually uses, and progress is reported in the same terms. If the injury is covered by workers' comp, our work injury rehab page explains how authorization and reporting work in Florida.

Ergonomics and adaptive equipment

Sometimes the fastest route back to a task is changing the task. Workstation assessment, tool and equipment recommendations, and technique changes can make daily activities safer and less painful without waiting on strength to return. At a desk that can mean the height of the screen and the position of the chair, keyboard and mouse. On a job site it can mean tool grips, how a load is lifted and carried, and how the work is staged through the day. The same thinking applies at home, from the kitchen to the garden. Call 561-624-4263 and our front desk can tell you whether an assessment is covered under your plan.

Hand and upper-extremity function

Fine-motor and functional-use training runs alongside our certified hand therapy program, so a patient whose hand is the limiting factor gets both: the protocol-driven hand work from Laura Drumm, CHT, our certified hand therapist, and the daily-function retraining that turns restored motion into a usable hand. Few clinics in the county can put both in the same building.

Cognitive rehabilitation

Memory, attention, sequencing and problem-solving are as much a part of safe independent living as strength is. Where they have been affected, therapy targets the strategies that let someone manage medication, follow a recipe or handle a household routine again.

Occupational therapy or physical therapy?

They overlap and they are frequently prescribed together, which is why we run both under one roof rather than referring out. The short version: physical therapy generally targets movement, strength and pain, while occupational therapy targets the activities that movement is for. If you are not sure which you need, our front desk can talk it through, and your evaluation will settle it.