Getting to Know you
The assessment will aim to understand you and your daily routine; we will ask you questions about activities such as getting washed and dressed, preparing food, and going up and downstairs. And if possible, how you manage to get outside? This assessment usually takes around 1 hour of your time. Following this, a full comprehensive report will be written with specialist recommendations, a rehabilitation treatment plan, and quotes for the equipment recommended to meet your needs.
Making The Most of Your Home Set-Up
As part of the assessment, we fully assess your home environment (Environmental Analysis) and advise strategies and equipment to make sure it’s suited for your needs. As part of the Environmental analysis, we consider flooring, lighting, and trip hazards. It could be that Getting in and out of bed, or on and off your chair or toilet may be a struggle. Or the stairs are becoming unsafe and not manageable, all of this is covered in the assessment tool that has been developed by our Therapists to ensure every area of daily living is safe and managable for you.
Safe moving and handling advice for you and any carers you may have.
The last thing we want is for you and your carers to get hurt during the giving of support in mobility, and personal or domestic care. Depending on what is identified in our initial discussions we can offer comprehensive moving and handling assessments both in domestic properties as well as care facilities. This can be done as part of the main assessment or as a stand-alone assessment. We use the most up-to-date guidance, and advice will be given on how to move safely, as well as recommendations for equipment if felt needed.
Part of the Occupational therapist's role is to be the experts in moving and handling and ensuring your and your loved ones or carers are safe throughout any transfers. This may be you are struggling to stand and needing some heavy assistance from others or that you have carers but are looking for ways to reduce the care package from two carers to one. OT 4 Life can offer expert advice and support in moving and handling and single-handed care as well as connections with industry-leading equipment providers to ensure the safety of you and your loved ones.
Choosing comfortable seating (chairs and wheelchairs) to ease pain and improve posture.
unfortunately some disabilities can reduce your mobility to the point you struggle to stand and get around anymore. at OT 4 Life we understand that being chair-bound for large parts of your day can get uncomfortable, and even painful. You might find it hard to reposition yourself if you slip, you get into bad postural habits, and your skin may be at risk of breaking down. From the expertise in seating, we have developed a full seating and posture analysis to help you to find seating that is tailored to your needs.
This assessment can be carried out as part of the whole assessment or as a stand-alone assessment however it is worth noting that often with assessments such as this Seating or wheelchair representatives may need to be present at the time of the assessment to give advice on their products and help you arrange your purchase.
End of life goals - to enable you to do that one thing you’d still love to do.
Although this can be a really sensitive thing to talk about, it can be very, very important to an individual to achieve that one last thing they dream of. This can be something such as visiting the coast for the last time or as little as getting to church or even sitting out at the dinner table to eat with loved ones. We will do our very best to support your wishes when you approach the end of your life, to bring joy and memories for you, and to those who are close to you. We have helped many people in situations such as this and have had feedback such that "the person's experience of their care received in the final weeks of life is often remembered far more than the experiences before this". this is why we strive to get this right for you and your loved ones. If we feel it can be done, rest assured that every effort will be taken to make this happen for you.
Mental wellbeing is just as important as physical health
Without a strong and happy mind, life cannot be lived to the fullest. In This service, we are "Dual Trained". This is why at OT 4 Life we can work with learning disabilities and mental health as well as physical health conditions; as one cannot thrive without the other.
This part of the Assessment is all about you. So ask yourself, ‘What do I want to achieve from occupational therapy?’ It could be confidence-building and controlling your anxiety. Returning to work after a long leave of sickness, not having to depend on others so much. You let us know, and we’ll work with you by setting realistic targets and timescales. Think about how wonderful you’ll feel, the sense of accomplishment when you achieve what you set out to do.
At OT 4 Life we believe that everyone has a right to live life on their own terms and the treatments we provide will support you in achieving exactly what you want to. We can start as big or as small as you feel you need and through our developed "Occupation focused assessments" can work with you to achieve your goals and on the road to recovery.
