Month: June 2010

Linnea Laufer and Laura Hessig, COTAs at Park View Gardens, joined their creative talents to create an OT treatment game that we frequently use with our patients. They created the game about two years ago in response to a request that the department increase the use of group treatments. Not only did they come up with a great idea, but they managed to include the patients in the creation of the game itself, which added to the overall experience!

The game is played as a board game with up to four players. Each player has a marker for the game board, and there is one large die. The spaces on the game board include a wide variety of tasks that the players are asked to perform. If a player lands on a task that they are unable to perform due to their level of disability, they are asked to pick an alternate card, which typically defines a cognitive/social task to perform. Some of the tasks included in the game are: changing a pillow case, picking up five bean bags with a reacher, donning a hospital gown, stacking cones positioned at a therapeutic distance, and doing exercises with a weight bar or stick. The activities can be graded in difficulty by having them perform from a seated or standing position as appropriate. The alternate questions that are used when a task seems inappropriate include memory questions like naming the other players at the table, telling what they had for breakfast, and stating the date. There is also a card that asks them to give a compliment to the person on their right, and one that asks what they are to do with the wheelchair before standing.

We keep the supplies all together so there is no time spent gathering items when a therapist wants to use the game. The supplies for the tasks we use in the game are a dressing stick and reacher, theraband, hospital gown, empty pill bottle and beans, five cones, two towels, five bean bags, a pillow and pillow case, ball, and a cane or weighted stick.

To create the game, Linnea and Laura had patients help with tasks while working on fine motor skills and standing activities:

Cutting out the shapes for the game board spaces and alternate cards
Gluing the shapes on the pages
Hole punching the pages.
Tying the pages together

The pages were laminated and tied together to create a game board that folds down to the size of a single piece of paper. When the board is laid out on a table, it is large enough for all the patients to reach it, and the therapist can turn it to face whichever patient is having their turn.

The patients have great fun and encourage each other during the game. The socialization and camaraderie are also a great benefit to our patients!

At Desert Terrace, we began doing groups for 3 reasons:

1. Increase patient motivation with therapy;
2. Improve efficiency on days with meetings;
3. To have more fun at work!

We perform several groups. On Fridays, our occupational therapy department has cooking groups. Each patient has a preparation task and a clean-up task to perform. They typically do a cooking breakfast group starting at 6:30 a.m.; although, we have also had groups making salsa, cookies, and salad.

The physical therapy department has multiple physical activity groups. We play volleyball, have obstacle courses, basketball toss, static and dynamic balance, and gait groups. Because we are an inner-city facility with many patients who use public transportation, we coordinate real-life community integration groups. The building gives each patient participating $5. We use public transportation and go to a nearby Wal-Mart or pharmacy to practice real-life community interactions.

We have discovered that our groups, especially the volleyball and basketball toss, motivate patients to stand and participate at a higher level than they would with traditional 1:1 therapy. We give prizes to the winners, which is another great motivator!

One idea we have for a future group is to obtain some fishing poles since we have a canal that runs behind our building. Our plan is to put weights on the fishing lines and just let folks “fish” for relaxation, balance, standing endurance, and upper extremity strength and mobility. In the next 90 days, we are also planning on starting a gardening group and a diabetic group. The diabetic group will include nursing, dietary, and physical therapy to discuss the importance of following a diabetic diet, and weight bearing and skin care orders to prevent and help heal diabetic wounds.

We have also found a book with some games that will help us come up with even more groups. Future plans include putting (as in golf), bowling, dart ball, and ring toss. Speech therapy has discussed beginning a card group on Friday afternoons.

We are excited to begin looking for other ways for our patients and for ourselves to have fun in therapy. We would love to hear what others are doing and will be glad to share information anyone may need.

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