An Occupational Therapist (OT) can work in a multitude of different settings treating various diagnosis. The goals of Occupational Therapists, regardless of the patient’s diagnosis, is to maximize a patient’s independence to be able to perform life tasks that are important to that individual.

When an Occupational Therapist treats chronic pain patients one of the first items they do, is an assessment of what activities of daily living patients are having difficulty performing. These activities can be self-care, church, homemaking, school, work or community. An Occupational Therapist job is to teach patients how to carry out their functional tasks successfully without making their pain worse.

You will meet with your OT professional who will perform an evaluation and work with you to set up treatment goals. Normally the OT will work with you for 8-10 visits to achieve these goals, modifying the timeline per individual patient.
Once the OT identifies what activities are important to the individual patients there are multiple treatment interventions the OT can suggest. They can often modify the task using adaptive equipment, change the environment, or teach the patient new ways of performing the task using joint protection principals. OT’s take a more holistic approach in treating chronic pain patients with the goal of returning the patient to their highest level of functional ability.