Barkın Kose

By Zeynep Bahadır Ağce, Esma Özkan and Barkın Köse

Rheumatoid arthritis is a progressive, chronic, and degenerative disease that adversely affects the quality of life of individuals. Depending on the individual’s symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis, basic and instrumental daily life activities are restricted, and participation of life is adversely affected. Occupational therapy interventions for rheumatoid arthritis rehabilitation include self‐management programs (e.g., arthritis self‐management program, bone up on arthritis, self‐management arthritis treatment physical activity), splinting techniques for rheumatoid arthritis, and vocational rehabilitation. In this chapter, updated information about these approaches is brought together and presented to the reader.

Part of the book: Occupational Therapy

By Sedef Şahin, Barkın Kose and Meral Zarif

Developing technology, rehabilitation services, and health definitions have brought about the use of different treatments as well as traditional treatments. Some of these methods are virtual reality, animal-assisted practices, and aqua therapy. Animal-assisted approaches are the therapeutic methods of eliminating and using the problems that an individual experiences in the physical, emotional, psychological, social, sensory, and environmental development areas by taking advantage of human and animal interaction. These methods consist of two basic chapters: animal-assisted activities (AAAs) and animal-assisted therapies (AATs). An interdisciplinary team is needed to implement the methods. This team is composed of personnel, such as occupational therapist (OT), physiotherapist, speech therapist, special education specialist, and a psychologist, who have been trained in this area. In recent years, these methods have been used to increase social interaction with physical structure and functions in neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism spectrum disorder and cerebral palsy. In addition, it is actively used in mental disorders such as depression and anxiety because an improvement is observed by providing the individual to feel safe. When participation is considered in the context of independence in daily life activities are very important, the use of animal-assisted in occupational therapy.

Part of the book: Occupational Therapy