Authors (including presenting author) :
NG TY(1), LAU SY(1), CHAN PS(1), AU KM(1)
Affiliation :
(1)Occupational Therpay Department, Tai Po Hospital(1)
Introduction :
The pandemic of COVID-19 has made apparent influence of patients in HA setting, especially for the infirmary patients. Most of their usual activities were being suspended, including outing activities, going picnic and home leaves. Besides, all interest classes and activity groups including play mahjong, art and craft groups were cancelled from January, 2020. Setting-up individualized besides assistive technology systems for infirmary patients could improve significantly their social life and hence improving quality of life (QoL) and the situation worsened with the implementation of no visiting policy due to the prolonged stay at ward.
Objectives :
To overcome the adjustment, Occupational therapist (OT) combined the use of commercial available devices with the custom made adaptive devices in order to enhance patients’ QoL and maintain connections with others during COVID-19.
Methodology :
After the assessment of patient’s limitations, for example, poor hand function, limited active motor control, etc., OT could tailor made the splintage fabricate, enlarged handle and universal cuff and incorporate with the use of commercial stylus pen and switch interface, maximize patients’ independency and efficiency to operate and navigate their smart devices at ward. With the application of the assistive technology, OT could help patients to improve communication to the external environment, so as to enhance their social life, QoL and sense of autonomy of the infirmary patients during COVID-19.
Result & Outcome :
Two infirmary cases will be used to illustrate the AT prescription by OT below: 1) Ms. Tam was a 30 years old female suffered from brain abscess and SLE with poor upper limbs control and stiff fingers. Her aunties usually visited her daily and accompany with her during the interest classes. Due to the no visiting policy, Ms. Tam felt lonely and she was eager to communicate with her auntie daily. Through OT assessment, individualized enlarged handle incorperated with the use of a commercial stylus pen was prescripted, a more precise contact surface for her open whatsapp easily. Besides, Bluetooth keyboard was prescripted as well for her to type “Sucheng”(速成) in whatsapp. Finally, she felt grateful to maintain the communication with her loved one at ward during COVID-19. 2) Ms. Lee was a 52 years old female suffered from tetraplegia with very limited hand function. All interest classes were suspended, she felt bored and disappointed. In order to sustain her leisure at ward, adaptive switch and accessibility mode in iPad was prescripted. Adaptive switches called Blue2 (switch interface) and Crystal clear switch button (large, easy press button for tetraplegia) were prescripted and connected to her tablet. Furthermore, the mobility accessibility mode of her iPad was set-up, which could initiate the scanning of the apps on the screen automatically. She could then open Netflix and enjoyed Korean movies by herself at ward to enhance her QoL.
