GPs….did you know that Occupational Therapists can help your practice by:

• enabling patients and clients to remain in their own homes
• reducing the length of hospital stay
• managing long term conditions and reduce dependency on services
• helping people to return to work and stay in work
• reducing your practice’s medical expenditure
• optimising your resources, time and budget

Occupational therapist use activity analysis of everyday tasks, and performance that have become difficult for a patient. This analysis breaks tasks into its component parts:

• physical demands ; strength, repetition, speed, balance and sensory elements (hearing, sight, touch)
• cognitive demands; attention, orientation, memory, planning and problem solving
• social and behavioural demands; time keeping, social skills, initiative, patience, dealing with consequences and learning from mistakes
• environmental demands – physical and social
• motivation and psychological drivers

Working with an Occupational Therapist can enhance people’s lives in many ways including:

• enabling a mother with depression to reengage with activities that will enable her to manage work and care for her family
• supporting people with pain and fatigue to remain in work
• assisting a teenager with a physical disability to live independently
• enabling older people to remain at home by improving safety, retaining independence and reducing falls

Find a local Occupational Therapist to see how we can support and enhance your practice.