Why Your Parent's Rehab Should Feel Like Real Life, Not Exercise

If your parent has been told they need rehabilitation, you might be imagining a therapist arriving with a sheet of exercises — ten leg lifts, twenty arm raises, repeat twice daily. And while strengthening exercises certainly have their place, there is a different approach that often works far better for older adults recovering at home. It is called occupational therapy, and it looks nothing like a gym session. It looks like real life.

What Makes OT Rehabilitation Different?

Most people understand what a physiotherapist does — they help with movement, strength, and pain. But occupational therapy takes a different starting point. Instead of asking “what exercises does this person need?”, an OT asks “what does this person want to do that they currently cannot?”

That question changes everything. It means rehabilitation is built around the activities that matter to your parent — whether that is getting dressed independently, making a cup of tea safely, playing cards with a friend, or driving to pick up the grandchildren. The physical work still happens. The stretching, the strengthening, the balance training — it is all there. But it is woven into tasks that have genuine purpose and meaning.

This is not a softer or lesser form of therapy. It is a clinically evidenced approach that aims to produce better engagement, better motivation, and ultimately better outcomes — because your parent is working towards something they actually care about.

Real Life, Real Progress

The difference between OT rehabilitation and a standard exercise programme is best understood through real examples. Here are some of the kinds of moments that happen when therapy meets real life.

The willow tree ornaments. One patient used a Sara Steady — a standing frame — to dust the ornaments on her mantelpiece. She had a collection of willow tree figurines, each one with a story. As she worked through them, she was stretching, reaching, and sustaining a standing position — exactly the kind of work a physiotherapist might prescribe. But she was not counting repetitions. She was telling the therapist the story behind each piece. Afterwards, she was panting and said she was absolutely worn out — but she loved doing it. That is purposeful rehabilitation.

The socks she did not know she could remove. A carer had been taking off a patient’s socks every evening. It had become routine — nobody questioned it. When the OT gently asked whether they could just see if the patient could manage it herself, she could. It was a small thing, but every task you do for yourself edges you a little further from dependence. Nobody had thought to ask the question before.

The card game she had given up. A patient with a tremor had stopped playing cards with her friend — not because she could not think or follow the game, but because she could not hold the deck. The barrier was entirely physical and entirely solvable. The OT found a simple card holder, and suddenly a meaningful social activity was back on the table. Sometimes rehabilitation is not about building strength. It is about removing the obstacle.

The drive to independence. After a hip fracture, one patient was terrified of getting behind the wheel again. Rather than suggesting she simply try driving, the OT broke the task into component parts. They practised the emergency stop movement at home first — just the leg action, in a chair. Then they moved to the car, in the car park, engine off. Then short drives around quiet roads. By the third session, the patient drove independently to meet her OT for their appointment. Within weeks, she was back picking up her grandchildren. That is what driving rehabilitation looks like in practice — and it happened because the therapist understood the goal was not “leg strength” but “freedom.”

The same patient needed to visit her son’s house, which had stairs she was not confident navigating — she lived in a flat with none. So the OT met her at her son’s property and practised the stairs together, in the real environment where it mattered. That is something that can only happen with home-visit therapy.

Why It Works Better

There is a straightforward reason why rehabilitation through meaningful activity tends to work well for older adults: people try harder when they care about the outcome.

A set of exercises on a printed sheet can feel abstract, especially for someone who is tired, in pain, or low in confidence. But dusting treasured ornaments, playing a card game with a friend, or driving to collect the grandchildren — these are things worth working for. The motivation is built into the task.

There are other reasons too. Practising real activities in your parent’s own home means the skills transfer immediately. There is no gap between “therapy exercises” and “daily life” — they are the same thing. Your parent is not learning to climb a practice staircase in a hospital gym; they are learning to navigate their own stairs, with their own banister, in their own slippers.

It also builds confidence in a way that exercises alone may not. When your parent successfully completes a task they thought was beyond them — when they realise they can take off their own socks, or drive to the shops, or stand long enough to dust the mantelpiece — that psychological boost carries forward into everything else they do.

What to Look For in Your Parent’s Therapy

If you are arranging therapy for a parent, it is worth understanding what good OT rehabilitation looks like so you can recognise it — and ask the right questions.

A skilled occupational therapist will:

• Start by listening. Before any assessment, they should ask your parent what matters to them — what they want to get back to doing, what frustrates them, what they miss.
• Set goals around real activities, not just clinical measures. “Walk 20 metres” is a clinical goal. “Walk to the front door to let the dog out” is a meaningful one.
• Work in your parent’s own environment. The kitchen, the bathroom, the garden, the car. If your parent needs to manage stairs at a relative’s house, a good therapist will go there.
• Involve you and any carers. The best outcomes happen when the whole team understands the goals and supports them between sessions.
• Adapt and problem-solve creatively. Sometimes the answer is not more exercise — it is a simple piece of equipment, a different technique, or a change to the environment.

Our team of HCPC-registered occupational therapists and physiotherapists work exactly this way — visiting patients at home across Hampshire, Dorset, and Wiltshire. If you think your parent could benefit from this approach, or you simply want to talk through what might help, please contact us for an informal conversation.

Good rehabilitation does not look like a workout. It looks like your parent doing the things they love, with the right support to make it possible.