Many people experience difficulties with their day-to-day activities at some point during their life because of illness or disability.
Occupational therapy may be able to help if a patient experiences difficulties with:
- Looking after themselves, e.g. washing, dressing, cooking, eating, shopping, cleaning
- Paid and unpaid work
- Leisure activities such as going out, socialising, hobbies and sport activities
- School and play
- Rest and sleep
Occupational therapists aim to address such problems on a very practical level - enabling people to be competent and confident with their day-to-day occupations.
There are different reasons why it might be difficult to carry out certain activities: Physical, mental, emotional or developmental difficulties, as well as environmental factors, may be restrictive.
Depending on the individual circumstances we can assist adults or children with developing, recovering or maintaining skills that are required for activities, which are important to them.
Some people recover fully from their illness or disability, for others, it may have a life-long impact. In such situations, we are able to provide advice on alternative strategies, lifestyle-adjustment, work simplification, equipment and home adaptations to increase a patient’s independence, safety and satisfaction with day-to-day occupations.
We aim to enable patients to engage as fully as possible in different areas of life and different roles, which often includes working together with a patient’s relatives or carers.
We work with patients in a variety of different clinical specialties, including:
- Cardiology
- Intensive Care
- Paediatrics
- Transplants
- Cardiothoracic Surgery
- Oxygen Service
- Respiratory Service
You can find out more details of the work we do with patients on the clinical areas page.
Sometimes we are not able to address all issues while a patient is in hospital. We work together with community therapy services, which can provide further intervention once a patient has returned home.