Abilities Care and Contracture Management

By Erin Mallory, DOR, Shawnee Post Acute Care, Overland Park, KS

Our OT team has taken their love for Abilities Care and applied it to another one of our LTC programs of contracture management. The OTs have utilized patient-specific strategies for improved patient tolerance to wearing palm guards with the goal of preventing skin breakdown and contracture progression. These two residents are functioning at ACL 3.0 and 3.2 and have had multiple attempts at contracture management interventions resulting in increased agitation and behaviors with both therapy and caregivers when donning palm guards. When utilizing their Abilities Care strategies, our OT team personalized each of the resident’s palm guards to add items that the patients love.

One of our residents loves the movie Chuckie (she even asked to be dressed as Chuckie for Halloween last year 😊) and when our OT offered her to hold onto a small Chuckie doll, she was open and willing and has had a decrease in behaviors when donning these palm guards with both therapy and staff.

Our other resident we have utilized these Abilities Care strategies for contracture management loves flowers and they really calm her. Our OT team tried adding artificial flowers to her palm guard, and it looks like she is holding a bouquet of flowers. The resident loved it! She has demonstrated an increased tolerance to wearing her palm guard with her flowers and is making progress with her range of motion.

Working alongside our nursing team to implement these strategies and help our residents to make progress through contracture management has shown that we can truly move mountains with the right patient-centered Abilities Care approach.