National Occupational Therapy Month
In honor of National Occupational Therapy Month, we’ve interviewed some of our outstanding OT’s who dedicate their heart and soul to caring for the residents at Allaire who need their services.
Marguerite Gavin, OT
I decided to become an OT because I love helping people succeed, regain their independence and reach goals that are most important to them. My job entails evaluating patients, creating client-centered goals in the area of activities of daily living and developing a treatment plan based on those goals; including collaborating with an interdisciplinary team and family members, as well as creating a discharge plan for the patient’s optimal success.
One of my patients looks at me every time she accomplishes a small goal, which touches my heart.
What might seem small to us, such as reaching a small goal, makes a huge positive change in the lives of our patients/residents. I take that as an everyday rule of thumb.
Allaire has a team approach to helping each of their residents/patients. Plus, they have the best rehab team I’ve ever worked with 🙂 .
Miriam Ocho, OT
I became an Occupational Therapist after my cousin who is a PT told me that an OT helps people with disabilities perform their daily living activities as independent as possible. I felt right away that this is my calling and that’s when I decided to become an OT.
In my role as an OT I evaluate and create a plan of care and provide quality treatment to people with physical and cognitive impairments, enabling them to achieve their highest level of independence in activities of daily living (ADL). Treatment includes exercise/activities to increase strength, balance, coordination, motor planning to restore physical and/or cognitive abilities. My job also includes monitoring patients’ progress and providing modifications/adaptations allowing them to achieve the highest level of independence in ADLs and improved quality of life.
I’m not sure if I dramatically changed the life of any resident here, but there’s one resident who keeps expressing how glad she is that I work really hard in making her upper body mobile and flexible because it was so stiff before and moving them was so difficult and limited. Now, she can move her upper extremities more with no discomfort, allowing her to perform self-care activities with increased ease and independence.
Although my patients always thank me after our sessions, there’s one patient who keeps telling me “thank you for taking your time with me Miriam” and it really touches my heart.
One special thing I notice about Allaire, is that everybody is treated as family. When I started working here, right away I felt the support and care that you get from a family in order to achieve the same goal: to be of service to our residents and give the best care we can provide.
Neil Dave, OT
After carefully considering various careers in Healthcare, I decided to pursue a career as an Occupational Therapist. As an OT, I feel that I make a difference in the lives of others by helping them reach their potential.
My job entails helping others maximize their potential, as well as keeping them safe and comfortable in their environment.
As far as changing the lives of my patients, I feel that we change the lives of individuals every day by showing kindness and compassion.
I have a young stroke survivor, who is just starting to show some emotion after receiving OT for some time.
The one special thing I noticed at Allaire, is the teamwork between the different departments to ensure that our residents get the best quality of care.