Occupational Therapy Assessment Service
Children and Young People’s Occupational Therapy Assessment Service is for children and young people up to the age of 18 who have a disability which impacts on their daily activities, or the safety of those caring for them.
Occupational Therapy can support your child at home with:
- Assessment
- Advice and guidance
- Equipment and advice on techniques
The Occupational Therapy service supports children and young people to achieve their maximum independence and quality of life within their home environments.
Generally, The NHS Paediatric Therapy services focus on rehabilitation and developing skills, whereas, our Occupational Therapy Service is here for you when we need to begin looking at other avenues to support you with long term disability needs, management, and maintenance. We may seek to understand what support you have received prior to accessing our service to ensure we can offer the right level of provision to meet long term goals.
Occupational Therapists work with all kinds of people, looking at their everyday ‘occupations’.
Occupations are activities that we do every single day, such as going to the toilet, getting into bed and making breakfast! Sometimes, we might find these tasks difficult and this is where your Occupational Therapist (or OT for short) might be able to offer support.
Our Occupational Therapists use a ‘graded approach’ this means to say that we will always encourage as much independence as possible as the aim is always to ensure that independence and function are retained, and your potential is maximised. We might trial lots of ways to help, which might consist of advice, equipment, environmental adaptation or linking with other services to support you.
Occupational Therapists are regulated by The Health and Care professions council, each of our registered Occupational Therapists are licenced to practice in the UK. Our Occupational Therapists are also members of the Royal College of Occupational Therapists with members engaging both regionally and cross country to promote and innovate within the profession.
- Advice – The Occupational Therapist may give you advice on a range of items, from using equipment you already have, to tried and tested techniques.
- Equipment – The Occupational Therapist may prescribe or advise you on equipment to improve access, independence and safety. There are many types of equipment to support you and your Occupational Therapist will also advise you on how to use this equipment to meet your specific needs. This equipment will be loaned to you through our partners at the equipment loans service and will have a sticker to identify the loan company and any maintenance or servicing.
- Environmental Adaptation – The Occupational Therapist may recommend changes to your home in order to provide access to essential facilities to meet your needs. Adaptations are generally funded through the use of ‘Disabled Facilities Grants’ however, this may be dependent on the ownership of your home, the Occupational Therapist will advise you on where your referral for adaptations has been sent based on the information you provide.
- Links and Signposting – The Occupational Therapist may identify that you require support from other services or professionals, they will explain this to you and provide any necessary details for contact where available.
- Moving and Handling – The Occupational Therapist may advise that you need further support with ‘transfers’ or ‘moving and handling’ this means that we think there may be a safer way to get you in and out of a chair for example. To help keep you and your family/carers safe, we may provide advice, equipment or techniques to improve this for you.
After your referral is made, it will be screened to ensure that we have all of the information needed to assist you and to ensure that we can prioritise urgent needs.
You may receive a letter, dependant on waiting times.
You will be contacted by one of our Occupational Therapists as soon as possible who will introduce themselves and may ask further questions to inform how we can support you.
The Occupational Therapist will arrange either a face to face or virtual appointment in order to carry out your assessment.
In carrying out your assessment, the Occupational Therapist will ask questions about;
- Medical history and any treatments, they may also request to see letters from other professionals who support you such as your consultant or other therapists.
- Your height and weight (or possibly any relevant measurements).
- May want to see how you access and use your environment, including how you are supported by others or use any equipment you might already have.
- May want to observe your home and may ask questions about others within your home.
- May ask you to trial techniques or equipment.
Your Occupational Therapist will take all of the information you have provided alongside any observations and will use this information to help form recommendations. These recommendations will outline any support or advice you might need including items such as equipment. Your Occupational therapist might need to speak to you or see you more than once and might want to test any ordered equipment in person.
Following your Occupational Therapy assessment, you will receive a letter with key information about your recommendations and if needed, any next steps.
Who can make a referral to Occupational Therapy?
Referrals can be made by:
- any healthcare professional, including;
- health visitors
- doctors
- consultants
- therapists or,
- other professionals working with the family
Referrals can also be made by:
- a family member
- carer or,
- the child or young person themselves
- Referrals from professionals must be discussed and agreed with the child’s family and consent gained.
Referral form
Referrals must be in writing using the referral form here.
Once you’ve completed the form, please email it to: access_team@sandwellchildrenstrust.org