OTIS

Occupational Therapists (OTs) help people to live their best life. OTs help people to do the things they want and have to do. We focus on a person’s ability to participate in an activity that is meaningful to them, and whether they do this safely, to support their health and wellbeing. Our overall aim is to improve quality of life.

An occupation is an activity that we need, want, or like to do to live. These activities enable us to look after our physical health, our emotional and spiritual wellbeing. We split these into three categories:

• Self-care: such as sleeping, eating or washing
• Productivity: such as work, study or household chores
• Leisure: such as playing sport, hobbies or socialising.

Activities vary depending on our environment, interests, values, talents and skills. Our occupations also change throughout our lives. They give our lives purpose, meaning and structure. They help shape who we are, connect us with others and create our identity and sense of belonging. Focusing on occupation leads to improvements in our ability to do the things we need and want to do, our social relationships, communication and connections, as well as our mood, rest and sleep.

OTs see beyond diagnoses and limitations to hopes and ambitions. They look at relationships between the activity you wish to do alongside the challenges you face and your environment. We then create a plan of goals to help individuals to achieve the breakthroughs they need to elevate their everyday life. This may look like:

• Education: helping an individual to understand what they need to know to complete and take part in an activity
• Upskilling: helping an individual learn a new skill to engage in an activity
• Adapting: helping an individual to adapt an activity to make it more accessible.