Activities Of Daily Living
What are Activities of Daily Living?
Activities of Daily Living (ADL), are all the essential, basic self-care tasks that people need to do every day to keep themselves safe, healthy, clean and feeling good: from getting up in the morning, showering, grooming, preparing and cooking meals, shopping and travelling to maintaining the house, garden and taking care of pets.
Most people manage these daily tasks without any difficulties. However, for an individual with a physical or learning disability, these activities can be challenging and can impact on their functional and independent living skills.
What can make ADL difficult for someone with a learning disability?
A person with a learning disability might experience problems carrying out activities of daily living. Perhaps they have difficulty remembering important tasks they need to do each day such as brushing their teeth, keeping themselves clean, attending appointments or paying their bills.
Often, someone with a learning disability can also present additional challenges such as physical, sensory or mental health problems. Difficulties with mobility can mean a person may struggle with simple tasks such as transferring to and from seating, walking safely between rooms or going up and downstairs. Perhaps someone may have a specific condition such as Cerebral Palsy which is a condition affecting movement and co-ordination. It may be that the person has difficulty using one or both hands which could lead them to struggle with day to day occupations such as lifting or holding objects or even being able to dress easily.
A person experiencing mental health problems may lack the motivation to participate in activities which can be detrimental to their health and wellbeing. Poor mental health can often mean someone experiences problems with social interaction, sleeping, diet or maintaining a healthy balanced lifestyle.
Sensory processing is not a term which is commonplace to many people. However, it is common for individuals with a learning disability to experience difficulties in their ability to process sensory information from the world around them that most people take for granted. The 5 senses you probably know are:
- sight
- taste (gustatory)
- smell (olfactory)
- hearing (auditory)
- touch (tactile)
However, there are 2 more unfamiliar senses ~ proprioception (using our muscles to understand where our body is in space) and vestibular (the sense of how the body moves against gravity). A person who has difficulties with their sensory processing may find some activities of daily living challenging.
How can Occupational Therapy help?
An Occupational Therapist (OT) can help improve the quality of life of a person with a learning disability in many ways. This could include adapting activities or providing equipment, advice and guidance to the individual and their families or support staff for the purpose of improving skills, ability and independence.
Assessment
An Occupational Therapy assessment will identify which areas of function are causing problems or concerns for the person before a treatment plan or recommendations are proposed. The OT will consider the person’s activities of daily living, environment, routine and other factors which impact on their independence or ability to carry out day to day tasks.
Prescribed equipment
Some small items of equipment may be prescribed which could assist a person to carry out an activity safely or independently. These could include eating and drinking utensils such as modified cutlery to enable a person to hold a fork or spoon more comfortably or a specialised mug which can prevent spills or scalding should a person have difficulty with their fine motor skills or grip.
Should a person struggle to get in or out of a bath, the OT might provide an aid such as a bath seat or have a grab rail installed.  For larger pieces of equipment or should a person’s environment require structural adaptation, the OT would make a referral to another service such as Social Work Occupational Therapy who would carry out their assessment – often liaising with the Learning Disabilities OT.
Alterations and tools
For most Activities of Daily Living, even some small alterations to a person’s lifestyle, routine or living environment can be beneficial.
The OT may recommend using visual prompts to enable a person to remember the process or sequence of tasks. These could include daily or weekly planners which feature photos or symbols representing the activities to be attended to on a particular day or time such as personal care tasks, household or domestic chores, appointments or social events. Planners, calendars and timers are helpful to establish good routines; routines aid memory, sleep patterns and quality of the activities carried out.
Other visual supports could be simplified photographic recipe books or personal care charts which provide step by step instructions in order to accomplish an activity safely and effectively.
In some cases, it might be necessary for the OT to advise an extended period of intervention or to work jointly with other health or social care professionals.
An Occupational Therapy Assistant Practitioner (OTAP) could be introduced to provide treatment intervention based on the outcome of the OT assessment. The OT and OTAP would determine an appropriate method to deliver the treatment programme which could involve regular telephone contact, video consultations using NHS Lanarkshire Near Me or directing the person to access the Occupational Therapy Resource Website.
It may also be necessary for the OTAP to work directly with the person in their home or community at times when performing Activities of Daily Living carry additional risks or challenges.
TOP TIPS for Activities of Daily Living
- Keep a calendar: A calendar or wall planner is a great way to remember what tasks need to be done that day/week.
- Keep a routine: Doing the same tasks at the same time each day will help you plan your day and not forget to do things that are important! Routines help you to get better and quicker at doing some tasks which can be quite boring.
- Visual prompts: pictures can be useful to remind us to do some of the things we often forget such as: checking the dates on foodstuffs or locking the door at night.
- Plan ahead: planning and saving for shopping or events can help to stop you overspending.
- Privacy: remember not to let strangers know your personal information. If you are on a bus or in a public place when someone calls you on your mobile phone to discuss something private, try to find somewhere quiet to talk to them or ask them to call you back a little later.
- ‘Be kind to yourself’: try to make time during your day to do something nice for yourself. This can be a simple thing such as relaxing to your favourite music, getting some fresh air, chatting to a friend or giving yourself a compliment.
- Sleep: try to always go to bed at around the same time to get a good sleep. This can help us wake up feeling ready to take on the events of the day as well as looking good! It helps to keep mobile phones on silent!
Your Feedback – comments, concerns and complaints
NHS Lanarkshire is committed to improving the service it provides to patients and their families. We therefore want to hear from you about your experience. If you would like to tell us about this please visit our feedback page.
