World Occupational Therapy Day 2022
Thursday 27th of October marks World Occupational Therapy Day, a day that exists to increase the global impact of occupational therapy.
The global awareness day is organised by The World Federation of Occupational Therapists (WFOT), which is the international voice of the occupational therapy profession. The day is an important opportunity to heighten the visibility of the profession’s development work.
What is occupational therapy?
Occupational therapy (OT) is a type of practical support used to help individuals that struggle with day-to-day tasks, for a variety of reasons. The phrase ‘occupation’ refers to any activity of daily living including self-care, leisure, work or education. Being able to live independently and carry out such occupations, are vital for mental health, identity and overall well-being.
An occupational therapist will work with a patient to help them overcome the effects of their condition. Treatment involves counselling and practical skill-building that focuses on adapting to the individual’s environment. Specific goals will usually be targeted, and the therapist and patient will find ways to fulfil these goals.
In turn, this will support the individual’s independence and confidence, and overall improve their performance in daily activities and personal management.
Occupational therapy at Nightingale Hospital
Occupational therapy is available at Nightingale Hospital in London in an individual or group setting. It can also take place in an outpatient, day patient or inpatient programme.
We have several occupational therapists with a breadth of experience to match your individual situation. We establish successful patient/therapist partnerships and achieve the most effective therapeutic relationship due to this extensive expertise. We will take the time to understand your problem and individual needs.
We are an accredited service by the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP).
Occupational therapy support at Nightingale Hospital can take the form of:
- 1:1 assessments and OT input following referral to Nightingale Hospital
- Restoring well-being in leisure activities
- Addressing any anxieties when food shopping, preparing food or eating in groups
- Occupational therapy skills groups
- Experiential/occupation-based groups
Occupational therapists at Nightingale Hospital
The OT team at Nightingale Hospital comprises:
- Tegan Rix Senior occupational therapist, specialising in eating disorders
- Weronika Bielinska Occupational therapist
- Claire Tramontino Occupational therapist
We asked Tegan, Weronika and Claire to share some brief insight into their roles at Nightingale Hospital.
- “Eating disorders impact all aspects of a patient’s life. When patients arrive in acute in-patient care, I mostly find that their primary occupation of day-to-day life is pursuing their eating disorder and all other aspects of life diminish causing their quality of life to grossly decline. When ill, a patient generally will lose sight of their identity and purpose outside of their eating disorder and daily tasks and activities are insidiously warped by destructive rules for engagement in life. My aim is to help patients explore, discover and build an occupational identity outside of their eating disorder. We also work towards re-establishing the function of day-to-day occupations in a way that holds purpose, is of value to the individual and is in line with recovery.
Alongside the experiential-based work, I assist patients with certain comorbidities that can exist, most commonly being depression, anxiety, OCD and ASD.” – Tegan - “The role of an occupational therapist, specific to the OCD unit includes supporting individuals with developing independence and re-integrating back into the community through using exposure-response prevention.” – Weronika
- “Occupational therapists recognise and consider how mental illness can impact how an individual occupies their time and their level of engagement in daily activities of living. This can be in terms of quality of engagement and quantity of time spent in occupations. The role of occupational therapy in a general psychiatric acute setting is therefore predominantly the assessment of individuals on a 1:1 basis. With an evidence-based approach, occupational therapists are able to make clinical recommendations based on the assessment findings which becomes a vital step in successful discharge planning. Occupational therapists within this context also provide group therapy wherein occupation is used as both a therapeutic means and an end. Within group therapy, the focus can also shift to psychoeducation around occupational science concepts and how they can be applied to everyday life both on the ward and following discharge.” – Claire
