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Favorite adaptive equipment in hand therapy
651 Plays1 year ago
Josh and Miranda explore some of their favorite adaptive equipment to give out in hand thearpy.
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Transcript
Introduction and Overview
00:00:05
Speaker
Hi, I'm Josh McDonald. And I'm Miranda Materi, and we are Hand Therapy Academy. We're going to talk today a little bit about adaptive equipment, maybe what some of our favorite pieces are of adaptive equipment, maybe some new things, some things that are standards.
Favorite Adaptive Equipment for CMC Arthritis
00:00:18
Speaker
So Miranda, what would you say if just at first glance, what's your favorite piece of adaptive equipment? And are you going to give me an injury or I just got to? Let's go CMC arthritis.
00:00:28
Speaker
Okay. Yeah. That's I think the most common one I like, um, that I, what I like to give patients is Dyson. I think that works for so many things. They can take it home with them that day. And it's like my present to them.
Using Built-Up Grips in Therapy
00:00:39
Speaker
So if you would call that equipment, I don't know. Sure. Sure. Why not? How about you? Um, I'll go with the same theme of favorite because I give it out the most is built up grips.
00:00:54
Speaker
Oh yes, me too. I'll usually have... It's such a cheap thing to buy from Amazon that I'll have a bunch of them. And if I show the patient and then keep it,
00:01:05
Speaker
then they don't get to play with it and try it. So I'll shove it on a pen, like dollar store pens that come 50 in a pack or whatever, and I'll send them home with a pen with a little tan built up grip on it. And I'll show them built up grips wrapped around other things and have them try something. Write your name with this. And sometimes it's just this big aha thing like, oh, it doesn't hurt. My
Adaptive Solutions for Neuro-Spinal Patients
00:01:24
Speaker
handwriting's better again. And so it's this big impact moment for them. And I like seeing that. And it's one I give out to a ton of different diagnoses too.
00:01:34
Speaker
an easy one to just grab out of the drawer and give them a little four inch piece. Yeah, same here. I love giving that out. I don't know why I didn't pick that one. So what's something that's maybe a little bit out of the ordinary that you do? Out of the ordinary.
00:01:51
Speaker
Gosh, I think where I'm at, I see a lot of neuro spinal cord type stuff. So a lot of times they have just a lot of weeks. So it's a lot of like, I don't give it out, but it's more education on utilizing tools and things like that.
00:02:11
Speaker
Like I'm saying, well, I know you can't, um, open this soda can, you know, by pulling up the tab, but if you take, you know, this can opener tab, you can open it that way. So I think it's just showing people things that they probably already have to be able to use it. And a lot of times patients figure that out on their own too, but if not, then we certainly spend that time sharing them.
Exploring Adaptive Equipment in Therapy
00:02:30
Speaker
Yeah. The rocker knife, I think is a big one too, for people who want to do meal prep and maybe they have one arm, one good arm.
00:02:37
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, definitely. We have a little adaptive equipment basket in both of our clinics. And I bought a bunch of the common stuff and I throw it in a basket. And so when I have a patient, we'll take 20 or 30 minutes of a given session and pull out the basket and go through everything. We've got heavy knives, we've got built up grip knives, we've got rocker knives.
00:02:57
Speaker
we've got button aids we've got an adaptive mouse we've got jar openers of different types and and honestly it's just to start the conversation with them and say listen none of these things you need to go get my job is not to make money when you buy these things but it's just to show you what's out there.
00:03:14
Speaker
And sometimes it's this aha moment like this, like, oh, this would make opening that jar way easier. You know, the triangular shaped thing with teeth on one side and jaw on the other that either is handheld or screwed onto the countertop. They're these little things. It's like a seven in one tool to open a can of pop or open a water bottle. All these different things. And I tell them, let's just go through these things. And if one of them jumps out to you, we'll write it down in a sticky note.
00:03:38
Speaker
or
Modifying Tools for Independence
00:03:39
Speaker
take a picture with your phone, but then go look it up on Amazon and just follow the rabbit trail of where that takes you. Type in adaptive, fill in the blank. And there's so much out there to be had to make your life easier. Let's talk about the tasks that you need to make easier and what tools might help.
00:03:55
Speaker
Yeah. I think when I forgot to, uh, it wasn't thinking about how you said something is the making clippers adaptable. So a lot of times when you just have, um, limitations, you can't like operate fingernail clippers, right? But if you just take thermoplastic and put it on the bottom base, that stabilizes enough so they can just push down. And that's something that's so easy for us to do. So I'll be like, Oh, just bring in your clippers and I'll show you. And if they don't like it, you can take off the thermoplastic. It's not,
00:04:21
Speaker
that hard, but I think sometimes those little things are showing your patient that you're invested in their care and also it makes them independent. Yeah, no, I agree. And it's so much easier to modify that than to go buy adaptive nail clippers, sometimes adapted scissors, sometimes like sometimes we can just with thermoplasts modify a tool that they already have or throwing a built up grip on there and save them having to go buy something unique and special. I've got scrap material. That's kind of what I've got it for.
00:04:50
Speaker
Yeah. I think it just depends too. You know, you might have someone that's going to get better, so they won't need those adaptations. But if you have someone with an amputation, then they may always need it,
Prioritizing Functional Activities
00:04:58
Speaker
right? So I think it depends on the case by case basis and the patient's demands. Yeah. So let's branch a little bit off of that and talk about the therapy equipment that you most often will ask patients to get for themselves or that they get themselves on their own. What kind of things do you find patients like buying for themselves?
00:05:20
Speaker
I, this one always surprises me because I always try to tell them things so they don't have to buy anything. A part of me feels like, I don't, I just don't always feel good about telling people to go buy stuff, but sometimes they'll come in and they'll have be like, Oh, look what I bought.
00:05:37
Speaker
like little therapy box, which I think is great, but I'm more I think of a function based therapist. So I always think about what things they can do at home that would simulate that activity as opposed to sitting there doing high reps of something. So I'm probably not likely to recommend any exercise equipment. What about you? Yeah, the only things I'll say that they need to like
00:05:58
Speaker
I'm with you. I'd rather find things at home that they can do without having to spend the money on it. So, you know, if their early, early distal radius fracture and ball rolling is great for their movement, I'll say, just use a roll of paper towel. Just roll over the roll of paper towel. You probably got one of those at home. Or go borrow a ball from a neighborhood kid or something and just do that. Or go to Walmart and spend two bucks on the giant bungee cord cage full of frozen balls.
00:06:22
Speaker
So find something easy and cheap, maybe a tennis ball if we're doing some of those things. So it's very accessible, dollar store, Walmart kind of things. But I'm not asking patients to go buy a putty and go buy calipers and go buy the DigiFlex. And I feel like
00:06:38
Speaker
Like you said, I want them to do things functionally and patients will say, like, what's my next home program thing? Like fold your laundry, go wash the car, go do some gardening. That's your home program. That's what I want you to do. And we'll adjust it as needed. But yeah, I don't want them to go by. I kind of want the tools to be unique and fun when they come in here. Otherwise, it's just kind of like, well, why do I need to come to therapy? I got all this stuff at home.
00:06:59
Speaker
Yeah,
Making Therapy Fun and Engaging
00:07:00
Speaker
I think that's a big one. What do you do for proprioceptive equipment at home? Like when you have someone that needs to work on proprioception, what's your go-to? I think that's a little bit trickier. It is, it is for sure. And if it's static, like pressing into a power wheel, that kind of thing, I'll talk about pressing into your mattress or your couch cushions or a pillow.
00:07:18
Speaker
or something like that. We're still trying to hold that static load while there's some dynamic pillow loading there. I've had patients who made their own wrist maze or the wrist exerciser where they take a coat hanger and put a washer on it and they're moving that thing around themselves. When you get to those higher level tools like a Powerball, a gyro ball, those kind of things,
00:07:40
Speaker
Patients may decide to go get that on their own, but honestly, it's using their wrist and doing daily activities. So go trim the trees. Those kinds of things, that kind of functions as it. Yeah, I totally agree. Sometimes they'll tell them to get an app, you know, if they want to do lab. Lots of people are on their phones a lot. So I might be like, Oh, get that labyrinth app where you can get out of home. But I'm with you. I like function over sitting down and doing some exercise. And I think you're less likely to do it. If there's four exercises written on a piece of paper, you're way less likely to do that than you are to go put away your laundry.
00:08:09
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, for sure. I forget, it's just not in my repertoire enough to do the apps on the phone. There's so many there. We've done podcasts on it. We've done, and I just forget to use those that that Labyrinth app is there. And the, oh, what's the graded motor imagery laterality one?
00:08:27
Speaker
Orientate. Yeah, there's orientate and there's one other one too. I forget those are out there, but you're right. People are on their phone. We've started using, I learned this from the ASHD conference. On an iPhone, there's a level built in in the actuator. And if you go to that level and put it flat on your hand over index finger and thumb, you can do lots of CMC mobilization to get these two circles to line up just perfect.
00:08:55
Speaker
And then you dump your hand and then fix it again. It's just a fun, we'll, we'll set patients up with our phones or their phones in the clinic and they love it. It's just this fun challenge thing. So yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe we should do a little video on that or something. Yeah. Yeah. That's a good one. I like that one. That's it makes it different.
00:09:11
Speaker
And we try to make therapy fun and different because so many times patients will say, like, therapy was just going to be like five things over and over and over again. And I try hard to make it so that I don't get bored and so that they're having fun.
Audience Interaction and Contact Information
00:09:24
Speaker
And I want patients to say, like, every time I come in, there's something different I'm doing just so that it's stimulating them intellectually as well as physically.
00:09:31
Speaker
Yeah. And then you're advancing them, right? You're not doing the same thing each time. I think you're really good at that. So props to that. I think that comes from my pediatric days. Like we had to constantly be coming up with new activities. So I'm, I don't ever want to get bored. Yeah. Yeah. That's good. Yeah.
00:09:45
Speaker
All right, so share with us in the comments below some of your favorite adaptive equipment, maybe some of your go-tos for what you like to give out to patients, what patients go by on their own, that kind of thing. And if you have any questions, you can reach out to us via email, info at handtherapyacademy.com or on social media, handtherapyacademy.