Welcome to The Centre for Working Hands

Why You Should Work with a Certified Hand Therapist - Sunday, August 1, 2010

If you want your working hands to maintain their function or resume full function as soon as possible after an injury or disorder, trust the credentials of a certified hand therapist. A certified hand therapist is an excellent complement to the other professionals who work to ensure your hands--or those that work for you--remain in their best possible shape to do the work that we all depend on.

Certified hand therapists work with hand surgeons to first manage wounds, reduce swelling, and reduce the chance of hypertrophic scars. They can help determine the best course of action for therapy after surgery to encourage healing at the best rate to restore function without risking further injury that will set back the timetable for maximal recovery.

Certified hand therapists have extensive training in the delicate nerve network of the hands and can help with managing acute pain or dealing with desensitization or numbness. This can include sensory re-education to help a patient adapt to an altered nerve network after injury. This may mean training in the basic life skills that were built on years of life experience with the pre-injury nerve network. The goal is to return you to as close to full functioning as possible so you can return to your life and work after injury.

Certified hand therapists are also experts in injury prevention, and can provide the perfect complement to ergonomic engineering. Where the ergonomic engineers look at the physical structures that define work habits, during consultation a hand therapist looks at the work habits themselves and help people to properly utilize ergonomically-designed workstations to avoid injury.

In short, if you are looking to prevent or recover from hand and arm injuries, certified hand therapists provide a unique skill set that can dramatically reduce time lost due to these injuries. For more information, please contact The Centre for Working Hands to talk to the hand experts at our Elkhart or Mishawaka office.