A workplace injury can bring on physical, mental, and even financial distress, especially when you’re not sure as to how long it will take you to fully recover.

If you sustained an injury while on the job, visit us at WorkPartners Occupational Health in Grand Junction, Colorado. One of our licensed occupational therapists will perform a thorough evaluation of your injury and create a progressive and individualized therapy program, which is aimed at helping you improve your physical function in order to perform self-care activities. Our foremost goal is to help build your confidence and empower you to lead your care and work towards restoring your full functional capacity, so you can return to work quickly.

Here are five of the several ways our occupational therapists here at WorkPartners Occupational Health can bring this goal to fruition.

Recommending Home Modifications

Apart from helping you perform self-care activities during your recovery phase, we can also conduct home evaluations to determine potential safety hazards, which can impede your progress. We will provide you with recommendations to ensure your safety, especially in accident-prone areas in your home, such as the bathroom and the kitchen.

Based on the extent of your injury and the design of your home, we offer tailored recommendations. Your checklist may include:

• Zero-threshold entry
• Easy-open door locks
• Handrails on both sides of steps
• Slip-resistant walkways (rubber mats, instead of area rugs or throw rugs)

Facilitating Activities of Daily Living Through the Use of Assistive Devices

To facilitate your recovery, we will recommend the use of adaptive tools (assistive technology devices) to enable you to perform your activities of daily living (ADLs) with great ease.

An adaptive tool is any piece of equipment, item, or product system that is used for improving or maintaining the functional capabilities of the injured or disabled person.

Examples of adaptive tools include:

• Electronic pointing devices
• On-screen keyboards
• Screen readers
• Text-to-speech synthesizers

Offering Transitional Return-to-Work Program Interventions

Your occupational therapist will work closely with you, your employer, and your attending physician throughout your transitional return-to-work (TRTW) program, which focuses on bringing you back to work as soon as you are medically able.

Your occupational therapist will assist you in gradually and safely resuming your work roles and responsibilities. Your occupational therapist will allow you to move in a way that prevents deconditioning while ensuring that your injured body part is given enough time to heal.

When you are able to successfully perform modified tasks at work, you will notice a significant improvement in your strength and mobility as well as a boost in your confidence in your own ability to perform optimally again.

Providing Ergonomic Recommendations

Ergonomics is simply defined as the process of efficiently arranging workplaces and systems according to the physiological capabilities of the people who use them.

Your occupational therapist is an ergonomics expert, and they can recommend effective workplace modifications to help you boost your productivity when you return to work. The recommendations that your occupational therapist will make will depend on your work environment and type of injury and could include:

• Changing your workstation lighting;
• Helping you organize your tasks, so you can complete them with minimal stress;
• Changing your chair or adjusting its height;
• Recommending that you take small, frequent breaks;
• Minding your head position and your posture.

Acting as Your Job Coach

If your doctor has given you a go-ahead to return to work, your occupational therapist can establish a coaching role to help you:

• Learn a different work method to reduce your risk of reinjury- your occupational therapist will assist you and your employer or supervisor with identifying alternative methods to perform your job functions;
• Meet return-to-work targets by ensuring that a realistic plan is calibrated to your capabilities;
• Ascertain your progress in graduated return-to-work plans.

Comprehensive Occupational Therapy Services in Grand Junction, CO

To learn more about our occupational therapy services or to book an appointment, call us at (970) 241-5585 or fill out our appointment request form.  We’re looking forward to helping you navigate through your occupational therapy journey!