With the aging of the population, more and more people are relying on occupational therapy and mental health treatment along with their long term care plans. The point of occupational therapy is to give people the support and training to be able to live independently particularly in areas relating to daily living activities such as feeding, bathing, and grooming.

Occupational therapists for example, are responsible for teaching and facilitating skills in cognition, self awareness, interpersonal and social skills, stress management, self sufficiency, daily living activities, as well as a wealth of other important skills. The therapy sessions are usually centered around very goal oriented activities that teach these skills.

The services that people seek when they go to see an occupational therapist include:

-adapting to the home and work environment after release from the hospital
-providing treatment groups and classes for experiential learning
-goal setting and rehabilitation planning to find the optimal therapy sessions

You can find many occupational therapists employed in places like adult day care centers, home health agencies, clubhouse programs, group and private homes. If you want to seek assistance, you can go to your case manager, psychiatrist, social workers, nurses, family physicians and other health professionals to help you find occupational therapy and mental health treatment that works for you.

Depending on the type of service you want, whether it is covered as outpatient therapy by your insurer or other state funding, you can use the services for as long as 6 months. Occupational therapy certainly is not for everyone and most people will opt only to use physical therapy, but with a well rounded therapy program you can make great strides in your recovery.

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Autism is a developmental disorder that affects roughly one out of 100 children. It is characterized by a lack of ability to function socially and in more severe cases, the process of communication.

Discovering that your child has autism can be a traumatic experience. Oftentimes, parents may believe there is something developmentally wrong with their child, but accepting that autism is the culprit can be difficult to say the least. Accepting that your child is autistic and getting him the help he needs is just the beginning. There are many other factors that go into parenting an autistic child.

At first, having an autistic child can be embarrassing for some parents. Autistic children do not have the same social skills as most of their peers. They are often prone to fits of anger and violence due to their inability to properly communicate. Oftentimes, these ‘tantrums’ occur in public.

There are many people that do not understand the first thing about autism. This means that they are more likely to make rude or insensitive comments about autistic people. People, on the whole, are an understanding bunch, although there are plenty of people who will make insensitive comments, ask inappropriate questions, and even stare at autistic children.

The first instinct for many parents may be to meet this insensitivity with anger. This is not the best approach. Consider that the person who makes an insensitive comment is ignorant to what autism is. They just don’t know any better!

What you should do as a parent, is try to ignore the comments if possible. This may be easier said than done, but it falls upon you to be the voice of reason. In addition, you should always focus on providing a good example for your child. Remember, the well-being and safety of your child is paramount. Everything else is secondary.

If ignoring rudeness is impossible, you should approach confrontation with the aim to educate. If someone understands that your child is autistic they will be less likely to make any further comments.

In addition, it is a good idea to have a plan when you go out in public. Understand the types of situations that can upset your child and do your best to avoid these circumstances whenever possible. It is also a good idea to keep a journal of your child’s behaviors and cross-reference them with locations. This will allow you to understand the triggers for bouts of violent or aggressive behavior.

To minimize disruptive behavior, think about the particular outing you have planned and what the worst case scenario would be and then plan for it. Take along a favorite toy or snack for placating your child, if they do ‘act out’ or make unusual movements/noises have some stock answers at the ready i.e ‘Sam has autism and lots of people/noises/new environments upset him. His movements/noises helps him cope with stressful situations’. Try going out in small groups of friends or family who know your child and can help you cope with any public outbursts or comments from strangers.

Dealing with autism in public is not an easy task. There are many people out there who will make judgments, comments, and other rude gestures at your child. Parents of other ‘normal’ children may also make insensitive comments. This is a negative part of human nature – but it is impossible for you to change it. What you can do is to provide information about the disorder and offer insight that will help others understand. If this does not work do not initiate a confrontation, as that will probably only upset your child and probably attract further attention.

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Self-injury is practised by autistic children when they are unable to communicate properly their needs or thoughts on a subject; often, they feel frustration and anxiety at not having their feelings understood and they translate these emotions in a painful manner to release the tension within them.

Other commonly used tactics by autistic children include head-banging, biting themselves or scratching at body parts till blood flows; at times, when an autistic child feels he or she is not getting adequate attention, they may also practise self-injury for getting some of the focus on themselves. This kind of behavior should be curtailed immediately and proper efforts made to understand what the autistic child wants to communicate in order to avoid a similar, dangerous situation occurring in the future.

Thus, the 2 main theories revolving around self-injury are frustration and attention-problem, but another recent belief is that self-injury may have a certain biochemical component which relieves some of the hurtful feelings one feels as the practise releases endorphins, (also known as the happy hormones) into one’s system, thus enabling the autistic child to forget about the negative feelings albeit, temporarily. Some believe that if one practises self-injury enough, endorphins start to mask any pain linked with such behavior, which can make self injury addictive.

Some medical experts feel that ignoring this kind of self-injurious behavior displayed by an autistic child is an acceptable method of treating them while others are of the opinion that this can be difficult for parents and other means such as better communication with the child and possibly relaxant drugs be used for treating self-injurious tendencies. The kind of drugs recommended for treating self-injurious behavior are those that release endorphins into the system that are effective in stopping such behavior. Another new-age cure for self-injurious behavior lies in nutritional supplements being included in the diet of the autistic child, mainly vitamin B6 and calcium.

Involving and educating the family circle around the autistic child and teaching everyone concerned about improved ways of communicating with the affected child helps prevent and control self-injurious and reckless behavior; learning the body language of an autistic child requires some time and dedication to learn in order to judge when the child is deviating towards harmful behavior but it can be done and is necessary deal with the situation.

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