Occupational Therapy

What does an Occupational Therapist do?

An Occupational Therapist is a Health Care Professional who:

• Provides service to people when their ability to function independently has become limited due to an injury, a physical or mental illness, or an existing condition.
• Assesses the individual needs of people.
• Develops and implements intervention strategies that assist people to maximize their independence and quality of life.

What Occupational Therapy Services do we offer?

Janet Gay, our experienced Occupational Therapist, enjoys the following professional activities:

• Assessing the needs of people with a disability - physical, sensory, cognitive or developmental disabilities.
• Developing and implementing intervention strategies that assist clients to maximize their independence and quality of life and minimize the impact of their disability.
• Providing information, support and training to families and caregivers to enable them to provide appropriate support to the person with a disability.
• Enabling people to increase their capacity to choose, organize and perform occupations (productivity, self care and leisure activities) that they find useful and meaningful in their home, workplace, school and in the community.

Features of Janet's approaches:

• Uses a client-centered approach, viewing people from a holistic framework.
• Considers factors in the person's environment (cultural, institutional, social and physical) in planning solutions.

Janet's experience has included:

• Working as an Occupational Therapist for a total of 7 years.
• Focusing on people who have developmental disabilities including intellectual handicaps, Cerebral Palsy, Autism Spectrum Disorder, various genetic and chromosomal disorders such as Downs Syndrome and Fragile X Syndrome and Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders.
• Assessments of people with disabilities.
• Providing training to clients in vocational tasks, work habits, self care and community access activities.
• Behaviour management.
• Designing and providing aids/equipment, home modification, mealtime support, road and travel safety, communication and sensory issues.
• Training in counselling; wheelchair prescription; pressure ulcer prevention and management; cultural awareness and code of conduct.
• Training in Supported Employment and Leisure for People with a Disability.
• Providing Manual Handling Training to caregivers and often advising in falls prevention for clients.

Click here for Janet's qualifications, credentials and general background.

Home Based Environmental Assessment and Falls Prevention:

• Falls remain the major cause of injury and accidental death in the over 65 age group
• 35-40% of all community-dwelling people over the age of 65 years fall at least once per annum
• After the age of 80, the incidence of falls increases to 50%
• Two thirds of these falls occur in and around the home
• Falls in the elderly account for 40% of hospital admissions

Janet Gay helps minimize any risk of falls or injury so you can remain safe and independent at home. You may require a home assessment if you say yes to any of the following:

• You have fallen, or nearly fallen, in the last 12 months
• You have two or more steps in, or around your home
• You have a shower over bath or a big step into your shower
• You are sometimes unsteady in the shower
• You have a low/soft lounge chair, or have difficulty getting up off the toilet seat
• You are unsteady when getting out of bed
• You have difficulty with mobility (shuffling gait, use of walker or cane)
• You have difficulty with judging depths/distances or seeing contrasts

As an Occupational Therapist, Janet will assess your mobility and self care, identify any hazards in and around your home, and recommend changes, equipment or rails to IMPROVE your SAFETY and PREVENT FALLS. Janet also performs In Home and Work Site Assessments for people who have been involved in a motor vehicle accident, enabling them to return to their daily home function and/or daily work function with greater ease and at a quicker pace.

Please call us today at 905-450-7870 to ask us about our assessments or to book an Occupational Therapy Assessment for yourself or for your client anywhere within the Peel and Halton Regions, as well as the Etobicoke area.