April is National Occupational Therapy Month: Remember to ask for your local occupational therapists for rehabilitation


Occupational Therapy at VMH ... April is National Occupational Therapy Month. Pictured above, at left, is Occupational Therapist Tami Gebel treating Dacia Regan’s broken wrist. After having surgery in La Crosse, WI, Dacia asked if her therapy could be provided at Veterans Memorial Hospital in Waukon, just a few miles from her home instead of an hour drive back to La Crosse every day. This is another example of how patients must advocate for themselves in asking their providers to use their local health care services. Submitted photo.

Dacia Regan of rural Waukon fell and broke her wrist in December, needing surgery in La Crosse, WI to repair broken bones and for a carpal tunnel release due to bone fragments being pushed into the wrist. Two weeks following surgery, she began coming to Occupational Therapy at Veterans Memorial Hospital (VMH)seeing Tami Gebel. Dacia was progressing well, however after her one month follow-up with her surgeon, she was instructed by her surgeon to see the occupational therapy department in La Crosse instead.

“I was hesitant because it is so nice to come here where it is so close to home, but I thought I had better do what my surgeon ordered, so I started to drive to La Crosse for my therapy,” states Dacia. “After my third day of driving to La Crosse for only a 30-minute therapy session, I explained to the occupational therapist the different exercises I was doing here with Tami in a 60-minute session, and she confirmed that I was just fine continuing the rest of my therapy in Waukon. I did not have to drive all the way to La Crosse.

“I was so thankful to be able to come back here to Veterans Memorial Hospital. Tami is so accommodating and fits me into her schedule right after I am done with work. Maybe my surgeon didn’t know we had occupational therapy in Waukon, but at my last check-up, he was very pleased with my progress and how my therapy was going.”

Many patients, like Dacia, have learned that they have to ask to see if their care could be given locally, much closer to home. Occupational Therapy is available five days a week, thanks to two full-time occupational therapists on staff, Tami Gebel and Melissa Clarke.

Whether the injury is a broken wrist, finger or elbow, tendonitis of the elbow or wrist, carpal tunnel syndrome, or an accident at work, occupational therapy services are offered locally at Veterans Memorial Hospital. The role of occupational therapists is to help people regain function following injuries and illnesses. Occupational therapists also treat people who have hip or knee replacement surgery, heart attacks, arthritis, pneumonia, strokes, diabetes, generalized weakness, breathing difficulties, and many other diagnoses in order to regain strength, movement, and independence in daily activities.

Those who would like to start receiving occupational therapy, or who would like to transfer occupational therapy services to Veterans Memorial Hospital should contact the therapy department at 563-568-5528.