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This article appeared in The Home News Tribune on December 19, 2006.
Now You’re Cooking: Returning to the Kitchen With Help
By Pamela Ferreira, O.T. R.L
Holidays are all about the kitchen. This time of year our lives revolve around cooking, baking, entertaining and eating. But if you’re recovering from an illness or injury, or have a chronic condition such as arthritis, or now use a walker or wheelchair, the kitchen can seem like a personal Everest. How do you shop? How do you move a boiling pot off the stove or scramble an egg?
Patients tell us the kitchen is one of the most challenging rooms in the house.
And that’s where an occupational therapist can help. Occupational therapists work with the goal of helping patients live as independently as possible. Together with you, your significant other, family members or friend, occupational therapists create a plan to get you as close as possible to where you were before the injury or illness.
If you’ve lived alone and cooked for yourself prior to the accident or illness, occupational therapists can help you continue to do so. You don’t have to go into a nursing home or eat someone else’s cooking. With the right planning, instruction, adaptive equipment and/or modification, we can help you return to the kitchen.
There are a number of things we can do to make the kitchen less scary. First, you want all objects that you use every day nearby or within arm’s reach. Don’t put your favorite pot, spoons or mixing bowls on a high shelf. Keep them near you. You should not have to bend and reach for everyday items.
Rather than carry items, slide them from one place to another. Occupational therapists can show you how to do that, as well as a number of work conservation techniques to move larger, bulkier items. There is actually an adaptive device to allow you to lift and pour a heavy tea kettle or pot. A special non slip mat can be used to keep items from sliding while you prepare food or eat.
We use the training kitchen in the hospital to show patients how to safely maneuver their wheelchairs or walkers from refrigerator, sink and stove. If you are using a walker, our emphasis is on stability; we don’t want to risk a fall. Both hands are kept on the walker while walking. If you’re moving an item, keep one hand on the counter for stability and use your other hand to move the item. In our kitchen, we have patients make meals for themselves; sometimes it’s a simple meal like a grilled cheese sandwich, or a more complicated dish like chicken and rice.
If a patient can’t drive or shop, we brainstorm ways to get groceries to the home. Can a family member or neighbor shop for you? Does your supermarket deliver to the home? Can you use a computer for online shopping? We show patients ways to get groceries from the door to the cupboard and to the refrigerator.
When they begin occupational therapy, our patients are often frustrated because they feel they can no longer do things for themselves. Occupational therapists show them that they can. How they do things may be different than before the illness or injury, but if you think about it, the end result is the same – you’re cooking.
Pamela Ferreira is a licensed occupational therapist and coordinator of the Occupational Therapy Program at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital at Rahway.
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