Occupational therapy
Dedicated therapy for everyday tasks and routines
Occupational therapy (OT) helps you develop skills and strategies to safely complete tasks that have become a challenge. We can help you bathe and get dressed on your own, move throughout your home and community, return to work, and overcome a variety of limitations. We also perform driving assessments in our office to determine if you need rehabilitation or modifications to drive safely. Your therapy is personalized based on what you need to live life fully.
At Penn Medicine, we provide both inpatient and outpatient occupational therapy. You can access our OT services within and near our Chester County Hospital, Doylestown Health, Lancaster General Health, and Princeton Health campuses in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. We also offer occupational therapy in and around Philadelphia, including in Bucks County, Montgomery County, and southern New Jersey, through our partner, GSPP Rehabilitation.
Our occupational therapists are part of a multispecialty team that provides rehabilitative care. You may also see our colleagues in physical medicine and rehabilitation, physical therapy, and speech therapy. Experts in each therapy specialty coordinate to help you reach your goals.
Occupational therapy services we offer
Our therapists have expertise in many areas of OT, from improving your mobility to managing pain and creating a safe environment. We partner with you to provide the care you need to move more confidently. Treatments include:
- Advanced life skills, including driving evaluations
- Amputee care
- Cancer rehabilitation
- Cognitive therapy
- Concussion therapy
- Hand therapy
- Fall prevention
- Functional capacity evaluations
- Home and community safety
- Industrial rehabilitation
- LSVT BIG® and LSVT BIG for LIFE®
- Lymphedema management
- Mobility support
- Neurorehabilitation, including brain tumor, headache, stroke, movement disorder, Parkinson’s disease, and TBI rehabilitation
- Orthopaedic and musculoskeletal rehabilitation
- Pain rehabilitation
- Post-operative recovery
- Wheelchair fittings
Designing your personalized OT treatment plan
The first step of occupational therapy is a complete evaluation, which involves taking a medical history, talking to you about your daily life, and performing assessments. Then we develop a treatment plan based on your diagnosis, current skills, and goals for therapy. You might receive therapy while you’re a patient in one of our hospitals or during outpatient appointments.
Inpatient occupational therapy takes place while you’re in the hospital or at a rehabilitation center with round-the-clock care for your condition. After an evaluation, an occupational therapist will work with you to improve how you function. Depending on your needs, your sessions may include working on mobility, balance, coordination, and other skills. You might also learn how to use assistive devices, like a walker or a wheelchair. After you’re discharged, you might continue getting OT on an outpatient basis.
Outpatient OT may be done in a practice setting or at your home, school, or job. Your therapist can evaluate your environment to create a personalized therapy plan and help you set up your space so that you can safely move from room to room, use the bathroom, shower, cook, and perform other daily tasks. You might also learn how to use assistive devices, which can range from dressing aids to computer software that helps you use technology. Throughout your therapy, our experts evaluate your progress to determine if any changes to your treatment plan are needed.
Connect with our occupational therapy experts
Occupational therapy is an important part of your rehabilitation. With convenient locations near you, we make it easy to get the complete care you need.
Locations
Our hospitals, multispecialty medical centers, pharmacies, labs and more offer outstanding, personalized care for patients all across the region.