Occupational Therapy for Stroke Patients: Regaining Motor Functions

This article discusses how occupational therapy can help stroke patients regain motor functions and improve their quality of life. It covers the causes of motor skill difficulties and the role of occupational therapists in promoting the quality of life of patients. The article also highlights the various methods used in therapy sessions to help individuals overcome their incapacities and live a better quality of life.

Running head: OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY
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Occupational therapy is defined as a crucial therapy of care plan which is designed for
faster healing of a patient after stroke. As discussed by Hara et al. (2016), it was observed that
patient who has lost the ability of perming day to day to activity such as maintaining stability,
remembering information, concentering on activities required the assistance of occupational
therapist after stroke. The purpose of appointing therapist encompasses the assistance given to
the patient after stroke for improving their motor and cognitive abilities that were poorly
impacted before. These activities are completed by occupational therapies by rearranging the
grain of the patient and assisting in the retrieval of muscle functionality (De Jong et al., 2018).
Hence, one might inquire, “what is the role of occupational therapists in regaining motor
function of the patient’. The assignment would hence argue about how occupational therapists
assist in developing or regaining the motor functions amongst the stroke patients in order to give
them a better life. The basis of assignment would be primarily discussing the cause of motor
skill difficulties experienced by patients of stroke and how occupational therapist assists by
ensuring the promoting effect on the quality of life of the patient.
As discussed by De Jong et al. (2018), one of the causes of disturbing life of patients
after experiencing a stroke is that the difficulties faced by patients regarding the movement and
set of skilled which used to be effortless before the incident of stroke (Freburger, Li &Fraher,
2018). The prime reason behind it is that portions of the brain which regulators diverse motor
movement of anatomy become affected by stroke. Due to these cases, patients are not able to
cope with the new lifestyle and tend to experience anxiety and depression. The optimistic effect
of the occupational therapies has been proved to be effective in patients who are experiencing
side effects of strokes (De Jong et al., 2018). Occupational therapists assist patient in grasping
their day to day tasks such as cooking, bathing, dressing, and driving. Moreover, occupational

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therapist ensures that continuing the therapy over the time, patient gained the capacity of
returning to work, pursuing their creative skills such painting, singing, playing musical
instruments and other activities which are regulated by successful motor functions. With a
gradual course of time occupational therapy able to bring more optimistic effects where patients
become independent and regain their previous lifestyle (Freburger, Li &Fraher, 2018).
Fine motor skills can be defined as the skills by which individuals utilize their hand and
coordinate their small muscles which assist in controlling their fingers. As discussed by Langan
et al. (2018), these motor skills along with other function of arms such as reaching for objects
greatly affected because of stroke. The severity of stroke can support the individuals in
identifying the extent of weakness. A study highlighted that the functions of upper extremities
can be affected because of stroke (Freburger, Li &Fraher, 2018). These effects involve the loss
of motor regulation and the inability of the patients for developing the perception about the
position of the body in space called Proprio-reception(Langan et al., 2018). Moreover, they also
experience lack of sensation in shoulders and wrists and hands that affected their quality of life
and make the vulnerable towards disease such as depression. These are one of the common cause
of impairment of the motor function of stroke patients. According to Almhdawi et al. (2016),
optimistic effects of occupational therapy are linked with regained physical abilities amongst
stroke patients who attend the rehabilitation services. Ploderer et al. (2016) stated that for gaining
independence of activities of daily living occupational therapy is ideal.
Some of the effects associated with services highlighted the efficiency of therapy. Firstly,
the therapist encourages patients to participate in their daily’s activities such as bathing, cooking,
and hand hygiene. As discussed by (English et al., 2016), these are attained by encouraging
individuals to use their motor skills. They also help patients to develop functional activities such

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as combing hair, brushing teeth. Secondly, the occupational therapist also enhances the
therapeutic activities of less functional which include stacking cones and others. English et al.
(2016), suggested that these activities help in assisting in addressing more of the specific aspects
of difficulties of fine motor skills for a specific grasp. These grips comprise of lateral pincer
grasps such as turning a key or dynamic tripod grasp that permit the patients for holding a pen.
These effects of comprising occupational therapy in recovery times support the patients for
ensuring the quality of life (English et al., 2016).
It is crucial for understanding the key reason for motor impairment of the stroke patient.
The most common causes of disabilities are Paralysis (Almhdawi et al., 2016). It mainly occurs
in the section of the body that opposite of the brain damaged by stroke. These affected face,
arm, leg and the entire side of the body. This is called hemiplegia and one of the most important
and decreases the quality of life. The symptoms involve difficulty in swelling (Langan et al.,
2018). The prime cause the part of the brain operates swallow functions gets affected by stroke.
The damaged occurred in the lower part of the brain called cerebellum are the reason behind the
inability of the body to organize movement (Flink et al., 2016). It is called ataxia which leads to
difficulties with body posture and balance. The therapies include therapeutic constraint-induced
movement therapy, exercise regimes, neuromuscular electrical stimulation that are evidence-
based practice for obtaining positive effects the health of affected individuals (Langan et al.,
2018).
From the discussion, it can be concluded that stroke affected the quality of life of a
considerate number of the individual. Poor controls on the activities and mobility wad observed
generally for the patients who are suffering from the side effects of stroke. In these cases,
occupational therapy might assist in gaining optimistic effects on the wellbeing of such patients.

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With the diverse methods used in the therapy sessions, persons might overcome their incapacities
and live better quality.

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References:
Almhdawi, K. A., Mathiowetz, V. G., White, M., &delMas, R. C. (2016). Efficacy of
Occupational Therapy Task‐oriented Approach in Upper Extremity Post‐stroke
Rehabilitation. Occupational therapy international, 23(4), 444-
456.https://doi.org/10.1002/oti.1447
de Jong, L. D., van Wijck, F., Stewart, R. E., Geurts, A. C., &Dijkstra, P. U. (2018). Content of
conventional therapy for the severely affected arm during subacute rehabilitation after
stroke: An analysis of physiotherapy and occupational therapy practice. Physiotherapy
Research International, 23(1), e1683.https://doi.org/10.1002/pri.1683
English, C., Shields, N., Brusco, N. K., Taylor, N. F., Watts, J. J., Peiris, C., ...& Hillier, S.
(2016). Additional weekend therapy may reduce length of rehabilitation stay after stroke:
a meta-analysis of individual patient data. Journal of physiotherapy, 62(3), 124-
129.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jphys.2016.05.015
Flink, M., Bertilsson, A. S., Johansson, U., Guidetti, S., Tham, K., & von Koch, L. (2016).
Training in client-centeredness enhances occupational therapist documentation on goal
setting and client participation in goal setting in the medical records of people with
stroke. Clinical rehabilitation, 30(12), 1200-
1210.https://doi.org/10.1177/0269215515620256
Freburger, J. K., Li, D., &Fraher, E. P. (2018). Community use of physical and occupational
therapy after stroke and risk of hospital readmission. Archives of physical medicine and
rehabilitation, 99(1), 26-34.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apmr.2017.07.011

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Hara, T., Abo, M., Kakita, K., Masuda, T., & Yamazaki, R. (2016). Does a combined
intervention program of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation and intensive
occupational therapy affect cognitive function in patients with post-stroke upper limb
hemiparesis?. Neural regeneration research, 11(12),
1932.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5270431/
Langan, J., Subryan, H., Nwogu, I., &Cavuoto, L. (2018). Reported use of technology in stroke
rehabilitation by physical and occupational therapists. Disability and Rehabilitation:
Assistive Technology, 13(7), 641-647.https://doi.org/10.1080/17483107.2017.1362043
Ploderer, B., Fong, J., Withana, A., Klaic, M., Nair, S., Crocher, V., ...&Nanayakkara, S. (2016,
June). ArmSleeve: a patient monitoring system to support occupational therapists in
stroke rehabilitation. In Proceedings of the 2016 ACM Conference on Designing
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