As a COTA

Too many times I have seen staff doing activities of daily living the residents should be doing themselves with supervision or assistance. I had one residence manager ask me about one of the residence losing her ability to dress herself. "She used to gather her own cloths and put them on - now she just stands there and waits to be dressed." It was not because she was physically unable to do it either. It was a great concern because all the years that it took her to learn to complete that task independently was gone. It was quicker and easier for the staff to do it. The resident had to catch a bus to get to Day Hab and she took to long and the bus was on a time schedule. Now the resident had to be taught to do it all over again. She still could do the steps but she had learned that the staff would do it for her, so why should she.