Tricia Doell is a longtime occupational therapist with St. Tammany Health System – but, what, exactly does an occupational therapist do?
Good question, and since we just marked Occupational Therapy Month, Tricia stopped by The Lake 94.7-FM studios to talk with host Charles Dowdy about her work.
Listen in on their conversation in the embedded audio player below, or scroll down for a transcript, lightly edited for clarity and readability.
Charles: It is a Thursday. Our friends from St. Tammany Health System are here. Tim! You brought along a guest today. Her name is Tricia Doell. Did I say that right?
Tricia: Yes, you did.
Charles: How are you?
Tricia: Doing fine, thank you. How are you?
Charles: So, we are going to get to what you do for the hospital in just a second. Tell me a little bit about your background. Who you are?
Tricia: So, I live in Mandeville and I am married with two children.
Charles: Alright, what ages are the kids?
Tricia: 21 and 24.
Charles: Nice.
Tricia: Daughter and son – well, son and daughter.
Charles: Good.
Tricia: In that order.
Charles: That is right where mine are. It is a nice age too because they are out of the house but still kind of around.
Tricia: Well, one just came back but, yes, it is good.
Charles: Alright, did you grow up in the area or what?
Tricia: I grew up in Metairie and moved to the Northshore in 1995.
Charles: And when you were growing up, did you predict, kind of envision that you would be doing what you are doing today?
Tricia: No, not at all.
Charles: What were you going to do, do you know?
Tricia: I knew something medical, but I had never heard of Occupational Therapy. When I started college, I thought I wanted to be an engineer. It was in my second year of college that I was searching what I wanted to do and, based on a description at the counselor’s office after taking an aptitude test, I said, “Well, that is what I want to do.”
Charles: Nice, OK.
Tim: Charles, April was Occupational Therapy Month, so we need to talk about occupational therapy – what it is and what we do.
Charles: Yeah, I am about to dumb it down because I need to know: What does an occupational therapist do?
Tricia: Well, first I will define occupational therapy, which can be defined many ways.
The one that I found that I like is that occupational therapy is a client-centered or patient-centered health profession that promotes health and well-being through occupation or meaningful activity. That is the thing. As OT’s, we focus on activities of daily living and getting people functional.
Charles: All right, so give me a typical patient. I know there is probably no “typical,” but who is coming to see you?
Tricia: Well, I am a certified hand therapist, so that is a specialty of occupational therapy. So we see a lot of hand trauma, a lot of hand injuries or hand conditions. It could be anything from carpal tunnel syndrome, which people have heard of, to arthritis, which people have heard of, to trigger finger, tennis elbow, which is lateral epicondylitis, golfer’s elbow, media epicondylitis. As far as hand therapy, that is what we see. More orthopedic and then again, a lot of injuries and trauma too: fractures, amputations, lacerations, things like that. Burns.
But there are many scopes of occupational therapies. I also work in outpatient rehab. With me, we have an occupational therapist that does neuro rehabs, so she would work with people that have had strokes, maybe a brain tumor, brain injuries, any neurological condition. Things like Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis.
And we have pediatric specialists, too.
Charles: We are talking with Tricia, and we are talking a little bit about what she does. Which is?
Tricia: Occupational therapy.
Charles: But you are a specialist.
Tricia: Yes. Certified hand therapist.
Charles: Now, did you do that later? Was that something that you came into after doing occupational therapy for a while?
Tricia: Yes. It is a specialty that you need to have the desire to do. You need to work so many thousands of hours dealing with hand patients. Then you sit for a certification exam.
Charles: OK, let’s back up. When you first became an occupational therapist, … what were you working on there that is different than what you do now?
Tricia: The general OT that I described, and actually what I did forget to mention – because I treated a lot of spinal cord injuries back then – my first job was at Charity (Hospital). Worked for the state. Also, they had stroke patients and a lot of hand injuries.
Charles: Alright, so physical therapist verses occupational therapist? What is the difference?
Tricia: Well, it is a challenging question, because it depends on the setting. As far as hand therapy, either an OT or a PT can become a certified hand therapist, but 85% of certified hand therapists are occupational therapists. …
In the neurological setting, the OT is mainly working on the upper extremities but also working on day-to-day function, activities of daily living: Can you eat? Can you write? Can you get dressed? Can you brush your teeth?
The PT is mainly working on the legs and them ambulating, whether it is in a wheelchair or with a cane or a walker. So, one description is the PT’s get someone to a destination. Once they get there the OT is like what can you do. We help teaching that through meaningful activity and exercise.
Charles: It seems to me what you do is very face-to-face. I mean, you are very much with your clients. Right?
Tricia: Yes, yes. Very close contact. One on one. We really get to know our patients or clients. And, you know, we are dealing with a condition, an injury, a surgery – so , we are focusing on that, but we are also focusing on the whole person. Getting to know them and also helping them emotionally to get through either the trauma or the condition. So, it is a very personal feel. You know the personal time that we spend with them.
Charles: A lot of this is, or I guess you tell me: Someone has this injury, or they have this situation where they are going to be coming to see you. Are they coming with doctor’s orders, or how does that work?
Tricia: Yes. To see an occupational therapist, you do need a physician’s order with a diagnosis. So, yes, we only treat with referrals or doctors’ orders.
Charles: Alright, what else? Anything else, Tim, we should have talked about that we haven’t covered before we let you guys escape?
Tim: Well, Tricia, where are you at? Where is your office?
Tricia: Oh, we are on – well, it is off Highway 21. We are at 1 North Azalea. It is the Outpatient Rehab for St. Tammany Health System. We welcome all patients or clients. You can actually ask your doctor for a referral if you are having any sort of condition or injury or hand problem or neurological problem that you would like to come get an evaluation for.
Charles: Alright, perfect. It was a pleasure to meet you.
Tricia: Pleasure to meet you.