When a patient has a stroke, a traumatic brain lesion or any other condition that limits movement, the occupational therapy is essential to help this patient maximize the mobility he has.
Work has often led to simple simulations. A therapist, for example, can lead a patient patient through a cooking exercise using bean bags and balls inside a rehabilitation clinic. But technological improvements also offer therapists new tools. Virtual technology can provide patients with a real scenario allowing them to visualize the kitchen utensils and ingredients.
This is just one example, according to the assistant professor of occupational therapy Jonathan Legarte, how the new technology can be used to reset the brain in her journey to find the functions she lost after a brain injury.
But for a simulation to have an occupational therapy, technology must be designed with the patient in mind. This is where its class – Assistance technology and environmental modifications – comes into play.
“Virtual reality is only a component,” said Legarte. “In this class, students learn of different low -technology and high -tech options to help people with disabilities, around 80% of low technology and 20% high technology. Assistance technology should be at low cost for someone and easily replaceable. ”
The course: Organist 750 – Assistance technology and environmental modifications
This course is offered to second -year occupational therapy students at the UNLV Integrated Health Sciences School. Students exploit their creativity by learning to design assistance devices for disabled people.
This course takes place every Tuesday from noon to 3 p.m. on the Shadow Lane campus of the University, where the doctoral program in occupational therapy is located.
How does this course benefit students in UNLV occupational therapy?
“In this class, our students understand the situation as a whole,” said Legarte. “Everything we do in terms of technology has been built by trying to meet the needs of a disabled person.”
Students learn to use accessibility options that already exist. “The current iteration of air pods aims to be functional hearing aids,” he said. “So, what can we provide who is already there for people with disabilities? Should we do them ourselves? Or should we count on assistance technology experts?”
Legarte said that students must put themselves in the place of people with mobility limitations so that they can better imagine which tool could be useful because they find the ability to finish their daily tasks.
At the end of the spring semester, students participate in the assistance technology fair, held inside the Lied library, where they have their invention and show their faculty members and their classmates how they can help patients improve their mobility.
“Environmental changes allow our students to examine domestic environments and make recommendations to better welcome disabled,” said Legarte. “It could include helping someone reach a higher area, or maybe create something to help someone who does not have a fine motor skills to write, or perhaps an idea that helps someone find their ability to walk or get out of bed.”
How can virtual reality serve as a pain intervention?
Virtual reality can be used for meditation, pain management and – more recently – Rehabilitation advantages, such as rehabilitation of strokes.
“With regard to the rehabilitation of occupational therapy, we plan to give patients a therapeutic power, which means giving them treatment options that they find attractive. Machines and weights can be intimidating, but virtual reality offers a different avenue,” said Legarte. “Research from the Nintendo Wii and Xbox Kinect (output) show that video games have therapy appeal. Virtual reality is this next step in therapeutic games, but has much more potential than simple video games.”
Legarte added that virtual reality creates a functional environment. For people who have had a stroke, simulated activities are beneficial because there is a tangible objective in mind.
“Let’s say they use virtual reality to simulate a kitchen task. They can see the stove and the utensils looking at each other in the brain. Compare this with a simulated task in the therapy gymnasium which generally includes the use of bean and ball bags. Virtual reality essentially improves their perception and creates a better environment to perceive tangible functions, “he said. “Even if the task is not there, it is more there that it would not use bean bags and bullets in a therapy gymnasium.”
Are there books or television shows that could give people a better understanding of what this class implies?
“This class really teaches you to be the MacGyver in the field of therapy. You are only limited about what you can imagine,” said Legarte.
What should the layman of this class know and how to benefit from it?
“For the secular person who finds it difficult to obtain a certain device or who has trouble accomplishing certain tasks, the future is in 3D printed technologies,” said Legarte. “What would usually be an expensive splint to do, you can now find a file and print it in 3D in your local library, or even your own house if you have a 3D printer.
“This technology is more common and becomes more affordable these days. You don’t even need to know how to code. If you can think about it, someone has probably already done it.”