ROCHELLE — April is Occupational Therapy Month. That service is offered by the Rochelle Community Hospital Rehabilitation Services Department. RCH has two occupational therapists on staff that can create a personalized rehabilitation program for patients recovering from surgery, an injury or an illness.

Those occupational therapists are Cindi Palmer, OTR/L, CLT, and Kari Murphy, OTR/L. RCH offers both inpatient and outpatient occupational therapy. Its outpatient services typically cover upper extremity rehab and functional independence.

“It's for anyone who wants to get back to being functional and independent again with activities such as stroke or brain injury rehab or orthopedic surgery rehab,” Palmer said. “We see some pediatric patients and can treat children for more orthopedic and neurological type things.”

For patients admitted to the hospital, occupational therapy services include helping patients to prepare to be discharged by making them as independent as possible and making recommendations on the best setting to discharge them to.

“We make sure they have the right support with equipment or family to keep them safe and continue to do their daily activities like bathing, dressing and going to the bathroom,” Murphy said.

RCH’s Rehabilitation Services Department is the only clinic in town that offers outpatient occupational therapy, its manager, Evan Tracy, said. The department recently added Murphy as a second occupational therapist to keep up with demand which has helped it to cover all of its inpatient and outpatient work. 

Palmer said RCH no longer has a waiting list for occupational therapy services due to the staffing expansion. Tracy said offering occupational therapy services locally keeps patients from having to travel out of the area.

“For patients who are recovering from something and want to get back home and need to follow up with therapy services, that's where occupational therapy can help them to become more independent after injuries or diagnoses,” Tracy said. “It's right here in town. Being able to do that for our residents is a time saver when they can travel 5-10 minutes to the clinic rather than taking an hour of their day just to travel somewhere else.”

RCH offers its XCEL Orthopedics services locally and has an orthopedic surgeon in Dr. Gadini Delisca. Its occupational therapy team can also offer services to those patients during their recoveries, along with others that have undergone procedures at other hospitals.

Palmer said seeing patients’ abilities improve gives her satisfaction in her work. 

“I think helping patients and seeing them improve is what drives me here,” Palmer said. “I love having patients come back with a smile on their face and tell me they were able to do something that they hadn't been able to do in years. We were able to help facilitate that for them and get them to do the things they want to be doing again.”

Occupational therapy caters to the need for any desired functional activities and can cover a wide array of patients from children to the elderly. Palmer said the practice can be found in any aspect of care.

Tracy said he enjoys seeing patients that come through RCH’s Rehabilitation Services Department out in public doing activities like shopping, which shows that RCH staff served their purpose. 

Murphy said she enjoys seeing people be able to do activities that are important to them again, and helping patients to be able to do the tasks that allow them to continue living safely in their homes.

Along with patients’ physical improvements, RCH staff get to see patients’ moods and outlooks improve as well during their time in occupational therapy.

“It's exhausting being in pain,” Palmer said. “You're tired and you're sad and you can't do what you want to do. We see our patients come in feeling sad and upset and in pain and then they leave and they can do everything pain free. That's a huge thing, seeing a smile on their face doing the things they love to do.”