Aspects of Rehabilitation

Better Quality of Life

As compared to Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy tends to focus more on evaluating and improving a person's functional abilities. An occupational therapist often does not directly treat a person's injury using techniques such as manual therapy or accupuncture as a physical therapist would but more often helps a person optimize their independence and their ability to accomplish their daily activities following an injury or in situations of physical impairment.

Occupational therapists sometimes will directly treat injuries, but more often occupational therapy focuses more on improving life skills and incorporating adaptive tools that are at times customized by the therapist. In some parts of the world occupational therapists utilize modalities like the use of ultrasound in injury rehabilitation, much like a physical therapist does per session visit.

Helping people improve their ability to carry out their daily tasks is the prime goal of occupational therapists. An occupational therapist is likely to perform on-site assessments of both the home environment and work environment and give recommendations on the suitable adaptations of each to allow for a better quality of life. The occupational therapist is trained to modify the physical environment as well as training the person to use assistive equipment to increase independence of the person. Even though physical therapists do on-site assessments as well, this tends to be less common.

Moving You Forward

The Physical Therapy profession (also called Physiotherapy in many parts of the world) tends to be more focused on evaluating and diagnosing movement dysfunctions as well as treating a person's injury itself. While an occupational therapist will often also do diagnosis, physical therapists are more likely to diagnose and treat the physical source of the problem along with the injured tissues and structures.

Both physical and occupational therapists are trained extensively in anatomy and the musculoskeletal system resulting in both being very knowledgeable about musculoskeletal injuries and rehabilitation than a general medical practitioner.

Although the two health care professions have differences in their focus there is much common ground between OT and PT. For an example of the crossover, an occupational therapist is often involved in educating people on how to prevent and avoid injuries, as well as educating people about the healing process, just like a physical therapist.

Physical therapists in turn often help people improve the person's ability to do their daily activities through education and training. While there is this common ground between the professions, they both play very important roles and are specialized in their areas of expertise. In many situations, both types of health-care professional are involved in injury recovery.