Occupational Therapy for Elderly People

Abstract

The population of the elderly is raising in the improved countries with the death age becoming later in life due to the improvement of contemporary therapy approaches and socio-economic and cultural levels. Most older people with major disability of recent onset have the potential to benefit from geriatric rehabilitation. Rehabilitation for older people should have specific goals. Rehabilitation of elderly people involves an active process, delivered through a coordinated multidisciplinary team approach, aiming to improve function and enable subjects to live their lives to the whole potential. The major goal of rehabilitation programs for older people is to assist them to manage personal activities of daily living without the assistance of another person. Occupational therapy facilitates optimal occupational performance and community participation across the full spectrum of ability. In this chapter, there is information on the principles of occupa- tional rehabilitation for elderly people and evaluation and different therapy approaches in occupational therapy.