Occupational therapy (OT)

Illness and accidents can affect your daily life. Occupational therapy is a health care profession which supports people in continuing their daily lives as independently as possible. It is concerned with:

• All the activities people do each day to look after themselves. These are known as the Activities of Daily Living and include personal hygiene, dressing, getting around and feeding ourselves.
• People's interests and the activities they enjoy doing - for example gardening, cooking and playing games.
• If we work, the activities people carry out to be productive at work.

Occupational therapy exists to help people who have difficulty coping with the everyday activities they could do easily before.

This may be because they

• Have physical disabilities
• Have mental illness
• Are recovering from, or coming to terms with, illness such as stroke or the consequences of a fall.