Hand Therapy Goes Online

When you have a chronic condition like carpal tunnel sydrome or tennis elbow, you usually wind up in an occupational therapist's office, doing exercises to help alleviate the pain.


But in this tough economy, not everyone can afford month after month of therapy.


"I worked in a clinical setting for many years and about two years ago, when the economy got in trouble, I had patients come in for their first visit and say, 'You have to teach me everything, because I can't afford to come back," said Jessica Karge, an occupational and hand therapist, who was working in Utah at the time.


"But there was no alternative for people who can't go to therapy or don't want to, for whatever reason," said Karge, a New Orleans native now living in Opelousas.


That's when she and her business partner, Kathleen Papi-Baker, also an occupational and hand therapist who is still working in Utah, got the idea to make a series of videos for that group of people.


"It's better to have therapy in a formal setting," Karge said, but the videos fulfill a need for those who either don't have insurance or can't afford their insurance co-payments for each session or have difficulty taking off from work for therapy.


The frequency of sessions varies, from once every couple of weeks to several times a week.


Karge stressed, however that while do-it-yourself therapy is preferable to no therapy, do-it-yourself diagnosis is not.


Everyone who decides to undertake an exercise regimen for pain should see a doctor first, to be sure that they are doing the right exercises for their condition.


Otherwise, they could do more harm than good.


Karge and Papi-Baker write the scripts and appear in the videos, which are filmed by a production company.


The videos that have been made so far include therapy for carpal tunnel syndrome, golf elbow and tennis elbow. More are planned, including videos focusing on exercises for arthritis.


They are available on DVD or can be streamed from the partners' website. The cost for the DVDs, which have closed captioning, cost somewherein the $45- to $60 range. The video streams, which do not, cost about the same for unlimited views for a year.


In addition to producing the videos, Karge and Papi-Baker provide advice on various topics on their website, www.treatyourselftherapy.com.


"We do semi-monthly blogs," she said. "Some topics are inner elbow pain — that's hurting on the inside of the elbow — there's one on shoveling snow with tennis elbow — but that's not for here. There's one on treatment options for arthritis."


Karge said she thought there might be some opposition to the videos from other occupational and physical therapists, but so far, that has not been the case.


"Everyone has been very supportive," she said.

(dailyworld.com)