Hand Therapy
You may not notice how much you use your hands until pain or injury turns holding a coffee mug or opening a door into a major challenge. At Atrium Health Carolinas Rehabilitation, our hand therapists use the latest techniques to help you overcome problems anywhere in your arm, from shoulder to fingertips. We help you get stronger and more flexible, so you can grip, lift, hold, type and get back to doing your daily tasks and favorite activities.
Patient Care – What to Expect
We provide expert, one-on-one care that includes:
- A certified hand therapist and physical and occupational therapists with years of experience rehabilitating hand and arm injuries
- Collaboration with the hand surgery team at Atrium Health to make sure you get exactly the type and intensity of treatment you need to overcome your injury
- Coordination with other therapists at Carolinas Rehabilitation to make scheduling convenient and to make sure that your different types of rehabilitation complement each other
- Research into new therapies, such as exercises that stimulate the brain in different ways to restore control and movement in your hand
What We Treat
We help patients overcome a range of injuries and conditions that affect everything from your hand to your elbow to your shoulder. Our team is trained to help you with:
- Arthritis
- Carpal tunnel and other nerve issues
- Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS)
- Cut tendons or nerves
- Dislocated joints
- Recovery from broken bones in the wrist, hand, fingers or elbow
- Recovery from surgery
- Tendonitis and repetitive movement injuries
- Torn ligaments
Hand Therapy Treatments
We use many treatments to help you regain use of your hands and get back to the activities you do at work and at play. These include:
- Stretching techniques, where the therapist flexes, presses and pulls your hand in precise ways to help restore movement in your joints
- Exercises that build hand strength by using weights and other tools
- Exercises that build finger dexterity by having you perform tasks with small items and tools like tweezers
- Workspace assessments to see whether changing the design or layout of the tools you use at work can help reduce pain and other problems
- Recommendations for adaptive equipment such as tools that help you open jars, hold mugs and perform other tasks
- Custom splints to help keep your wrist, hand or elbow still so it can heal after an injury and help you move your arm in a way that doesn’t cause pain