An occupational therapy (OT) practitioner is working with a 15-year-old client with a spinal cord injury

Question

After discussing a list of activities of daily living, the client indicated a goal of keeping her thick, curly hair looking attractive. What should the occupational therapist do first?
A. Identify a caregiver who will brush and style the client's hair every day.
B. Observe whether the client has difficulties manipulating the comb in her hand and through her hair.
C. Locate hair-care products that will make thick and curly hair more manageable.
D. Teach the client how to use the various assistive devices she will need to brush her hair.

Answer 1

ANS: B
The first thing the OT practitioner should do is (B) to observe whether the client has difficulty brushing her hair, and if so, to identify what those difficulties are. Only then can the occupation-al therapist (D) determine if any assistive devices are needed and educate the client on their use. While the client identified having nice-looking hair as an important goal, the occupational thera-pist identifies this as an activity of daily living (ADL) and must turn it into an occupation-based activity. Thus (A), identifying a caregiver to brush and style her hair, would detract from this process. Option (C), locating hair-care products to make the task of brushing hair easier, would be helpful, but this should not be the therapist's first course of action.