One sector of health care treats people of all ages to enable them to live life to the fullest, and prevent or live better with an illness, injury, or disability.

April is recognized as Occupational Therapy Month, and Guthrie County Hospital’s Occupational Therapist Tyler Ommen explains what this profession entails, “Occupational therapy, really the best way to describe it is, we work with people and try to make sure that they can live functional lives. So we basically use activity as therapy so things that people find meaningful or some things that people need to be able to do, we use that as a means and not only as an end of therapy.”

Occupational therapy treats a variety of health conditions including post-surgery, arm and hand injuries, autism spectrum disorders, developmental disabilities, and neurological problems. Ommen mentions how this line of work has influenced him, “What I would say from a professional standpoint is there’s not much that you can do that’s more rewarding than helping people become functional again. When you see people that have strokes or see people that have traumatic brain injuries, and they lose their ability to do the most basic things. And then you can help them do that again, there’s really nothing better than that.”

An occupational therapist’s treatment can include training for Activities of Daily Living (ADL) like eating, dressing, homemaking, and community activities, hand skills, sensory integration, and ergonomic education and modification in home, work, school, and leisure.