Occupational Therapy
Occupational therapy is a profession that works with people with temporary or permanent disability. It promotes peoples’ independence by looking at self care, leisure and work roles of the patient. It bridges the gap between what the patients can do and what they need to do, by providing skill development and sometimes adaptive equipment. Occupational therapy is for adults and for children who have difficulty with independent living skills

Ms Singh involved in cooking roti.

Ramrattie Singh, 62-year-old housewife living on the West Coast Demerara, woke up one morning in March not being able to move her right side. Frightened and unaware of what was happening, she attended the hospital to be told she had had a stroke affecting the left side of her brain and leaving weakness to the right side of the body. Ramrattie was advised to monitor her blood pressure in aiming to prevent any further stroke.

Ramrattie was referred to the Rehabilitation Department at the West Demerara hospital. It was here that she started to understand the full magnitude of having had a stroke. She saw other patients who had been attending for months pushing themselves to get weak hands grasping, legs moving smoothly, mouths forming words intelligibly, using their problem-solving skills to complete puzzles and some fighting hard to keep tears to a minimum.

It was also here that this patient learned that her biggest wish of ‘wanting to able to do things herself’ was exactly what the dedicated rehab staff would be supporting her to achieve.

From the first day, she was given exercises to maintain and develop her leg and arm strength, given advice on how to minimise deformity and pain in her shoulder, ideas to develop her balance and activities to promote her hand grasp. This was a comprehensive combined physiotherapy and occupational therapy programme.

As the months passed with weekly appointments, Ramrattie was gaining back her independence and gaining back what was possible of her strength and movement. She was able to dress herself, bathe herself, groom herself independently, with advice she had been given in therapy.

Once a month in the rehabilitation department, a cookery group is organised to address independence in the kitchen. It was in this group that Ramrattie, a once very confident cook, faced her worst fears of not being able to cook again without burning herself, or being clumsy, or not being able to do two-handed task’s like chopping and stirring and rolling out roti. It was also in this group( as seen in pictures, spurred on by other people in similar situations, that Ramrattie regained her confidence in cooking and now has regained her status in her kitchen at home.

Ramrattie was referred early to therapy after her stroke, and as a result, was able to regain skills and learn alternative ways of completing her daily living activities so that her wish of ‘wanting to be able to things for herself’ could come true.