The two fields, Occupational Therapy and Physiotherapy, can confuse us because both these healthcare fields are dedicated to physically rehabilitate the patients. But they have a few differences between them.
Let’s see what they are:
- Occupational Therapy focuses to improve a person’s ability to do daily activities but Physiotherapy focuses to improve the person’s mobility so that he or she can do that daily activity with the help of the body movement.
- Physiotherapists help in rebuilding the strength of the injured muscle while Occupational Therapists help in making you more able to do the same activity which you did use that injured muscle by suggesting you different techniques.
Example to elaborate the difference: Suppose a person called Abhishek has suffered from a stroke that has resulted in the paralysis of his right hand. In order to treat him, a Physiotherapist can stimulate the nerves and muscles of the paralytic hand with help of massaging and other light exercises. But an Occupational Therapist will focus on helping Abhishek to continue doing the activities he did with his right hand like eating, writing, etc. In this case, the Occupational Therapist can make him relearn eating or writing with his left hand.
