Occupational Therapy

The Rehabilitation and Orthopedic Institute at Palmdale Regional Medical Center is dedicated to improving its patients' quality of life by working with them to help regain maximum function and independence. In addition, the staff at the Rehabilitation and Orthopedic Institute work with patients and their families to help them reintegrate into the community. The Rehabilitation and Orthopedic Institute's staff works with professionals from all medical disciplines, including neurosciences, orthopedics, gerontology, hematology, oncology and general medicine. Occupational therapy services are provided to outpatients and hospitalized patients.

Patients Served

The Rehabilitation and Orthopedic Institute provides services to adolescents and adults recovering from a number of illnesses and injuries, including:

• Stroke
• Spinal cord injury
• Brain tumor
• Neuromuscular disease
• Total joint replacement and orthopedic surgery
• Arthritis and rheumatic disease
• Burns
• Upper extremity and/or hand injury
• Amputation
• Breast cancer lymphedema

Services

Occupational therapists use a variety of therapeutic approaches to restore and enhance the living skills of every patient, and help them learn to resume their daily routines, including toileting, grooming, bathing, dressing, cooking and working.

Specific services include:

• Evaluation and treatment of cognitive function
• Evaluation and treatment of visual perception
• Evaluation and treatment of ocular motor function
• Community reintegration skills, including money management, shopping and the use of public transportation
• Training for Activities of Daily Living: self-care and homemaking
• Assessing safety for independent living
• Hand therapy: splinting, controlled range of motion exercises and edema control—for hand and upper extremity injuries, reconstructive surgery and burns
• Work conditioning to prepare for returning to a daily work regimen
• Pre-vocational evaluation focusing on hand function, work skills and simple work tasks
• Home evaluations to determine home accessibility, helpful modifications and supportive equipment needs

Staff

The licensed professional staff of the Rehabilitation and Orthopedic Institute at Palmdale Regional Medical Center includes a clinical manager, occupational therapists, certified occupational therapy assistants and rehabilitation aides. We also feature speech and language therapists.