“Lorena is an extremely professional, knowledgeable, friendly and efficient
Occupational Therapist.
Lorena has an ability like no other to touch the lives of anyone who is lucky enough
to have her as their OT. I couldn’t recommend highly enough that you can put your
self into Lorena’s safe hands and know that you will be the better for it.
I was very embarrassed to be assessed by an OT and to open up about needing
help. Lorena’s kind, caring and understanding approach made me feel at ease.
I never dared dream let alone believe that there were steps that I could take to live a
happier, healthy and independent lifestyle with the ability to set some goals for
myself.
Lorena instilled the confidence and belief in me that I needed, knowing that I can do
more and be more is very empowering physically and mentally.”
Ciara (29)
"Lorena conducted an OT assessment on my mother's apartment to help us plan out
some adaptations required to suit her needs. This allowed us to apply for the
housing adaptation grant. The assessment we received was extremely thorough and
Lorena was fantastic to deal with. We would happily recommend her!"
Katie.
“My 80-year-old father suffered from a stroke in February 2014, he was left half
paralyzed and discharged from hospital after 5 months as they concluded that he
had regained as much mobility and speech as was possible.
Shortly after entering a Nursing Home, Lorena Degue came on board as my
father’s Occupational Therapist. Her enthusiasm, dedication, charisma and
professionalism have contributed to a remarkable improvement in my father’s
condition and self-confidence. He is now able to pull himself up into a standing
position, use the bathroom in private and communicate on his PC. Lorena
encouraged him to join the whole family for Christmas dinner. She listened to his
worries and fears about the event and reacted accordingly. He is now planning
trips to the cinema and art galleries. Lorena has a deft ability to juggle all parties
without ruffling any feathers, whilst giving absolute priority to her patient.”
Catherine
My name is Andrea. I‘m a hotel administrator and have been working in this
profession since I was 19.
I contracted meningitis when I was 27 and as a consequence I had myelitis, which
caused a spinal cord injury at level dorsal 5. Since that moment I have had no
movement or sensation in my legs and need to mobilize in a wheelchair.
With the help of Lorena, I learned that there are other ways to do the activities that I
have been doing my whole life in a certain way. I learnt again from scratch to do all
the most basic, fundamental activities such as dressing and showering to more
advanced activities such as leaving my home and going out into the community and,
finally, returning to work.
Among the goals that I planned in my OT treatment was to recover my
independence in dressing, grooming, cooking, organizing my house to have the
things I use in my everyday life at easy reach, to be able to mobilize in my
wheelchair on the streets, to transfer from my wheelchair to the bed, shower and to
cars.
During my treatment sessions we organized my outgoings into the community for
such things as ordinary shopping trips. We went shopping one time which was a
whole new experience for me. Lorena also helped me to use public transport again
as a part of my reintegration into daily life. We also analysed and organised
adaptations to my house and work-place to facilitate my return to every-day
activities.
Lorena helped me to achieve full independence in all aspects of my life. She is not
only an excellent professional with the knowledge and expertise to fulfil her role but
she is also an excellent person with the necessary abilities of listening,
understanding and sharing her knowledge in ordinary language with her patients.
This was all very important for me to help me to assimilate what had happened to me
and enable me to move on.
Andrea (34)
I had a stroke when I was 28 years old. Lorena helped me to regain independence in activities such as dressing and eating. She helped me to improve the coordination of my movements with my right arm and engage in high-dexterity movements of my hands and fingers. With the help and support of my family and dedication of my OT I could recover the movements of my upper limb and later I physically recovered. The next step was to go back to my daily life.
I remember the OT treatment as the area where I would find help and support to go back to my old routine. Lorena helped me to go back to work and to do leisure activities and to regain all the roles of my life. All the activities that were part of my normal routine before were now a big challenge. During this process I found the hope that I needed at that stage of my life when everything was too difficult for me.
Louis (34)