April is Occupational Therapy Month

VALLEY — Occupational Therapists help people across the lifespan to participate in the things they want and need to do through the therapeutic use of everyday activities (occupations).  They use assessment and intervention to develop, recover, or maintain these activities on an individual, group, or community basis.  Occupational Therapists often work with people with disabilities, injuries, impairments, mental health problems, learning disorders, and those requiring home modifications. 

To increase an awareness of Occupational Therapy in the community, Janet Noland, O.T. R. /L participated in the Rio Grande County Health Fair on March 31, which was held in the Del Norte Elementary mini-gymnasium.  To celebrate O.T. Month, Janet used a dynamometer to measure hand strength of health fair participants and showed them various types of hand strengtheners. 

O.T. Fact sheets from the American Occupational Therapy Association were available to the participants as well as pens and jar openers engraved with the 2018 O.T. Month Theme “ Occupational Therapy Empowering Independence.”

A graduate of Colorado State University, Janet has been an occupational therapist since 1965. She is currently contracted with Alamosa County Public Health and does Home Modification evaluations for Options for Long Term Care in the counties of the San Luis Valley.       

Caption: Janet Noland, O.T. R. /L hosts a booth at the Rio Grande County Health Fair. She has been an occupational therapist since 1965./Courtesy photo