What is occupational therapy?

The primary goal of Occupational Therapy (OT) is to enable people to participate in the activities of everyday life. Occupational therapists achieve this outcome by working with people and communities to enhance their ability to engage in the occupations they want to, need to, or are expected to do, or by modifying the occupation or the environment to better support their occupational engagement.

What do occupational therapists do?

Here are some examples of the kinds of work that occupational therapists do:

Working with children:

• Helping children achieve their developmental milestones such as fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination.
• Educating and involving parents, carers and others to facilitate the normal development and learning of children.

Rehabilitation and aged care:

• Helping clients regain or enhance their daily lives after specific events such as hip replacement or stroke.
• Assessing and modifying clients’ home and community environments to improve their safety and independence.
• Prescribing and educating clients and carers in the use of adaptive equipment to assist function.

Acute care:

• Specialist interventions in various health conditions including surgery, burns, HIV and acute mental health.
• Assessing clients’ cognition, function and psychosocial needs.
• Monitoring clients’ function and progress, prescribing adaptive equipment to ensure safety upon discharge from hospitals.

Injury management:

• Using specialised assessments to determine the functional requirements of various jobs, and clients’ capacity to return to work.
• Designing and coordinating graded return to work programs.
• Educating clients in safe work practices.
• Modifying the work environment to suit the needs of individuals so as to prevent or minimise injuries.

Mental health:

• Designing individual and group programs and activities to enhance clients’ independence in everyday activities.
• Developing coping strategies for clients in overcoming their mental health issues.
• Improving clients’ confidence and self esteem in social situations.

Rehab Ready Occupational Therapist:

Limor completed a Bachelor of Occupational Therapy and Psychological Science at La Trobe University in Melbourne. Since graduating in 2012, she has gained extensive experience in the area of paediatric, adult and aged care rehabilitation in both private and public hospital settings.

Limor has a keen interest in working with clients in their own home to maximise their safety and ability to independently engage in meaningful daily activities. Limor has a wealth of knowledge in the areas of equipment prescription, minor and major home modifications and functional assessments.

Outside of work, Limor has a passion for musical theatre, health and fitness, and enjoys spending time with family and friends.