Today, we talked about a twenty-three year old friend of one of my classmates who was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) in July of 2015. Not only did this diagnosis come a week before her twenty-second birthday, but her MS joined a number of other medical diagnosis already present. Thankfully, the MS she contracted is the mildest form of MS with intermittent bouts of the symptoms occurring. Currently, she is living alone and in law school. She also volunteers weekly doing equine therapy. Her goals throughout OT are to keep pursuing her interests in horseback riding and continuing law school. Helping the client to find adaptive ways to write, horseback ride, and conserve energy are all ways OT can help the client to pursue her goals.
Today we talked about Stephen Hawking, renown scientist and lecturer, and his fight with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). The incredible thing about him is that while he now is completely dependent on the help of others, he is still pursuing his passion of writing, science and speaking. While he is dependent on a tracheotomy for breathing functions and cannot actually speak, he has found ways to communicate and live life to the fullest. In fact, Assistive Technology (AT) has helped him to communicate by use of cheek movements in selecting words and phrases on a computer. Even though his AT has helped, Hawking's therapy should focus on continued effort to find the most advanced AT and adaptive equipment so that his continued loss of function will not impede his ability to pursue his desires and interests. Goals for OT involve training caregivers on how to us AT, discovering new techniques and methods to incorporate in his daily life, and helping him to f...
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