Finding solutions for everyday living:
Krista Harjamaki, occupational therapist

Sometimes everyday living throws a curve. Maybe you can’t easily use an ordinary glass, or you can’t bend far enough to pull on socks.

There must be a solution. Surely others have those problems?

It’s like a treasure hunt, except that when Krista Harjamaki is on your team, you have an advantage.

Harjamaki is an occupational therapist. Her job is to find those solutions that will allow a person to function independently in the activities of daily living. And even if the obstacle is the same, she pointed out, how to fix it might be different for each individual.

In fact, there are even different ways to approach the obstacle. Harjamaki uses the phrase “restore, compensate or adapt.” If the problem is bending over to put on footwear, for instance, the solution might be to work on increasing the range of motion (restore); find a different way to put on shoes, like an extended shoehorn (compensate); or adapt the shoe itself, like making tennis shoes into slip-ons using elastic shoelaces (adapt).

There are lots of unusual products on the market to help Harjamaki in her quest. And best of all, she says, those products are not only functional but are becoming more attractive as the principles of universal design take hold in the market.

There are brushes with long handles that can be angled to reach behind the head, for instance. There are left-handed spoons and playing card holders. There are talking watches and plates that have raised edges. There are water glasses that don’t need the head to be tipped back for drinking and there are sock aids to help put on socks without bending over.

There are many more, and some creative ways to use ordinary products like the use of raised self-stick buttons to identify hard to find buttons on appliances.

Harjamaki always knew that she wanted to go into health care, and her first major was nursing. After a stint as a Certified Nursing Assistant, however, she knew it was not her field. She told her counselor she wanted to stay in health care but not as a nurse or doctor. What was left?

In response, her counselor sent her to spend some time shadowing an occupational therapist. The therapist was working with young elementary students on their handwriting skills and doing it in a very creative way. She was having them manipulate Play-doh, a malleable clay product, in certain ways to strengthen their fingers. The goal was to improve their grip on a pencil and thus improve their ability to write letters.

This, she thought, was the field for her!

She has never had the occasion to use Play-doh yet in her career, she laughed. But instead she has been fascinated with the incredible variety in the job. It can be highly clinical or it can rely on more subjective observation. She has worked with all ages from 10 years up and has done everything from splinting an injured limb to surveying a senior’s home for safety.

Staying safe and independent in a home setting is an important issue with seniors. Recently Harjamaki received a grant to do outreach and education on this topic.

The most complicated part of her job, she said, is the special needs wheelchair. When striving to have appropriate seating for all nursing home residents, very expensive tilt-in-space designs are needed, and Harjamaki will write multipage requests to seek funds from Medicare. She has been successful. The Communities have received three of the units.

What kind of background is needed to become an occupational therapist? Harjamaki has a master’s degree from the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul, with coursework in anatomy and physiology, psychology, occupations and other topics that help her understand how a disease process affects the body and how the healing process works.

When she accepted a part-time job at Bigfork Valley, she came despite a long commute because she liked the atmosphere at the facility. Last fall that job became full-time.

Her job still intrigues her. Every day is like living a treasure hunt, a quest to make life better for someone.