Occupational Therapy

Occupational therapy is the therapeutic use of self-care, work, and play activities to increase function, enhance development, and prevent disabilities. These include Sensory- Motor (fine motor & gross motor), cognitive ,work, leisure, self care, domestic and community activities. Occupational therapists work with individuals, families, groups, communities and organizations to facilitate health, well-being and justice through engagement in occupation. Occupational therapists are becoming increasingly involved in addressing the impact of social, political and environmental factors that contribute to exclusion and occupational deprivation.

Physiotherapy

Physiotherapy is the art and science of physical care and rehabilitation, with physical therapists providing services to individuals and populations to develop, maintain and restore maximum movement and functional ability throughout the lifespan. This includes providing services in circumstances where movement and function are threatened by aging, injury, disease or environmental factors. Functional movement is central to what it means to be healthy.

Sensory Integration Therapy

Sensory integration therapy is a type of occupational therapy (OT), mostly used for children / adults suffering from PDD( pervasive developmental disorder) that places a child in a room specifically designed to stimulate and challenge all of the senses. During the session, the therapist works closely with the child to encourage movement within the room. Most of us unconsciously learn to combine our senses (sight, sound, smell, touch, taste, balance, body in space) in order to make sense of our environment. Children with autism have trouble learning to do this.

Sensory integration therapy is driven by four key principles

1. The child must be able to successfully meet the challenges that are presented through playful activities (Just Right Challenge);
2. The child adapts his behavior with new and useful strategies in response to the challenges presented (Adaptive Response);
3. The child will want to participate because the activities are fun (Active Engagement); and
4. The child's preferences are used to initiate therapeutic experiences within the session (Child Directed).

Sensory integration therapy is based on the assumption that the child is either overstimulated or understimulated by the environment resulting in various symptoms as seen in children with Autism. Therefore, the aim of sensory integration therapy is to improve the ability of the brain to process sensory information so that the child will function better in his daily activities.

Special Education

Special education is the education of students with special needs in a way that addresses the student's individual differences and needs. This process involves the individually planned and systematically monitored arrangement of teaching procedures, adapted equipment and materials, accessible settings, and other interventions designed to help learners with special needs achieve a higher level of personal self-sufficiency and success in school and community than would be available if the student were only given access to a typical classroom education.

Speech Therapy

Speech-language therapy is the treatment for most kids with speech and/or language disorders. A speech disorder refers to a problem with the actual production of sounds, whereas a language disorder refers to a difficulty understanding or putting words together to communicate ideas.

Therapists use a variety of strategies, including:

• Language intervention activities. The therapist may use pictures, books, objects, or ongoing events to stimulate language development.
• Articulation therapy. Articulation, or sound production, exercises involve having the therapist model correct sounds and syllables for a child, often during play activities.
• Oral motor/feeding therapy. The SLP will use a variety of oral exercises, including facial massage and various tongue, lip, and jaw exercises, to strengthen the muscles of the mouth. The SLP may also work with different food textures and temperatures to increase a child's oral awareness during eating and swallowing.

Pre-Vocational & Vocational Training

It’s a program designed to prepare a patient for the performance of useful paid work in a sheltered setting or under supervision. It may involve training in basic work skills and counseling as required for a typical employment setting. Vocational Services: Specific job training and work experience is gained in our work center( basic computer use, envelope/ folder making, gel candles), which provides paid employment experience.

Activities of Daily Living Skills

Training ADLs are defined as "the things we normally do...such as feeding ourselves, bathing, dressing, grooming, work, homemaking, and leisure."

Basic ADLs consist of self-care tasks, including:

• Personal hygiene and grooming
• Dressing and undressing
• Feeding oneself
• Functional transfers, e.g. Getting out of bed
• Voluntarily controlling urinary and fecal discharge
• Ambulation (Walking or using a wheelchair)

Complex ADL tasks are categorized under the term -Instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs) that let an individual live independently in a community: It includes:-

• Housework
• Meal Preparation
• Taking medications
• Managing money
• Shopping for groceries or clothing
• Telephone use

Activities of Daily Living Skills Training includes teaching an individual/ Patients in step by step manner to perform the above mentioned skills in an independent and more appropriate way.

Relaxation Therapy

Relaxation therapy helps to relieve stress, control anxiety symptoms, improve sleep, and have a better quality of life in general. The aim of relaxation therapy is to quiet the mind; to allow thoughts to flow in a smooth, level rhythm, and induce the relaxation response. This mental rest allows for rejuvenation that does not always occur, even during sleep.

By using relaxation techniques, it is possible to improve health, strengthen the immune system, build up resistance to stress, cope with change, and improve quality of life overall. Relaxation therapy techniques include Deep Breathing, Progressive muscle relaxation etc.

Group Therapy

Group therapy is a form of psychotherapy in which one or more therapists treat a small group of clients together as a group. It can be taken to include any helping process that takes place in a group, including support groups, skills training groups (such as anger management, de-addiction, relaxation training or social skills training), and psycho-education groups.

Family Therapy

It involves the group therapy of the members of a family, exploring and improving family relationships and processes and thus the mental health of the collective unit and of individual members. This approach regards the family, as a whole, as the unit of treatment, and emphasizes such factors as relationships and communication patterns rather than traits or symptoms in individual members.

Family therapy is often recommended in the following situations:

• Treatment of a family member with schizophrenia or multiple personality disorder (MPD). Family therapy helps other family members understand their relative's disorder and adjust to the psychological changes that may be occurring in the relative.
• Families with problems across generational boundaries. These would include problems caused by parents sharing housing with grandparents, or children being reared by grandparents.
• Families that deviate from social norms (commonlaw relationships, gay couples rearing children, etc.). These families may not have internal problems but may be troubled by outsiders' judgmental attitudes.
• Families with members from a mixture of racial, cultural, or religious backgrounds.
• Families who are scapegoating a member or undermining the treatment of a member in individual therapy.
• Families where the identified patient's problems seem inextricably tied to problems with other family members.
• Blended families with adjustment difficulties.

Art & Craft Activities

This therapy includes the use of art & craft media, the creative process for facilitation of communication through drawings as required in assessment of client . In treatment programs, art & craft activities are used to encourage and motivate clients to engage in group and to divert them from their active disease process.

Computer Aided Activities

Computers are used to train and educate specially abled children & Adults, For recreation of adults suffering from schizophrenia, depression

Obesity management & Weight Reduction

Obesity management & Weight Reduction Program includes customized weight management plans including weight loss techniques, dietary plans, exercise programs and behavior modification as well as support groups and educational lectures.

Counselling

Counselling focuses on helping people who have disabilities achieve their personal, career, and independent living goals through a counseling process guided by a trained professional.

Support group

It is a group of people who share some common experiences and concerns and also provides emotional and moral support to one another. We at Saksham Rehabilitation & Research Centre also run a support group under the name-SAKSHAM –NAMI support group where we organize workshops and regular meetings and during that care givers exchange their views in handling their respective clients.