What is Occupational Therapy?
Occupational Therapy is an allied Health Profession. The term occupation refers to engagement in meaningful activities including, activities of daily living, work, leisure and rest.
Occupational Therapists (OT’s) work in a variety of settings ranging from schools, hospitals, private practice and the workplace. OT’s work in all health areas and with individuals throughout the lifespan.
An illness or injury eg. Brain injury, may prevent an individual from participating in their usual routines or roles. OT’s are professionals who assist individuals to maximise their independence and achieve their goals. They do this by providing education, retraining, adapting the task or environment and prescribing equipment.
OT’s assess a client’s level of functioning in the following areas:
Commonly OT’s help people achieve their goals by enabling them to be involved in activities or occupation. Occupation itself becomes a therapeutic tool or treatment.
For more details or definitions about Occupational Therapy in General
LINKS
OT Association NSW: www.otnsw.com.au
INPATIENT OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY TEAM
Staff
All clients admitted to the unit are assessed by the Occupational Therapists. Most of the clients seen at Inpatient level require significant OT involvement through out their stay.
The Inpatient OT’s are primarily concerned with assessment and retraining of:
Group Sessions
The Inpatient team runs several group and individual sessions.
The groups include:
Individual Sessions
There are a variety of individual sessions determined by each patient’s goals, these may include:
Quality Improvement Activities
COMMUNITY OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY TEAM
Staff
Clients can be referred to OT by any of the Unit team members. They tend to be seen for extended periods of time, often several years. Clients commonly achieve their goals and may not be seen for long periods of time. When new goals arise they often come back to work on them.
The Community OT’s are primarily concerned with assessment and retraining of:
The majority of sessions are "one on one" and are completed in the client’s homes or local community. Clients also come into the unit for sessions.
Common goals that the community OT’s address are:
Quality Improvement Activities
Recreation officer
Recreation and leisure may play a major role in the life of a person with a TBI. Following the result of a TBI people may not be able to return to their previous life’s role immediately if at all. Often people are not able to gain full time employment thus increasing their free time.
Due to this increase of free time people may wish to pursue avocational interests for example; playing sport, becoming a volunteer, joining a special interest group, attending TAFE or a community college.
The recreation officer’s role is to assist people to identify interests and develop avocational goals, this is done by conducting an individual recreation assessment. Once an individual identifies what they would like to achieve the recreation officer in conjunction with the individual plan a step by step progress to reach this goal/s.
The recreation officer will explore services for suitability to fulfil the individuals need and make the necessary recommends to engage in these service’s or activities.
The recreation officers responsibilities include the following
Quality Improvement activities
If you have any questions about the Occupational Therapy programme please contact:
Lisa Knowles
Senior Occupational Therapist- Community Team
Telephone: +61 2 9828 5556
E-mail: Lisa.Knowles@swsahs.nsw.gov.au
Last modified: Thursday, 20 April 2006