Celebrating Occupational Therapy Week 2020
This week our Occupational Therapists (OTs) have been promoting their profession for the #ChooseOT awareness and celebration week.
Emma Tilley (Lead OT at University Hospital Lewisham) said: “Occupational Therapy (OT) is a very unique and rewarding career. Through OT focused interventions you can really make a difference to improve people’s health and quality of life. As a trust we are really lucky to have a large OT team including specialist teams based across both the acute and community sites.
"We will consider your strengths, abilities and health care needs and look at your environment (home, workplace, school, etc.) We can then find ways to make life easier and support you to manage daily tasks and activities. This might include support with self-care, household chores, getting out and about, adaptations to your home, finding or staying in work or education, or taking part in social and leisure activities.”
What qualifications do you need to become an Occupational Therapist?
Currently (outside of apprenticeships) to become an OT you will need to study an approved pre-registration programme to gain the necessary qualifications.Pre-registration degree courses, accredited by the Royal College of Occupational Therapists, are recognised internationally and will also enable you to work overseas.
Most UK courses are BSc degrees, although postgraduate diplomas and master's degrees are also available. All pre-registration courses combine both practical placements and academic study. All programmes will leave you eligible to apply for registration with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) and they will get you to that point through a variety of methods and experiences.
Academic course components include:
- Theories and models relating to occupation and occupational science
- The relationship between occupation, health and wellbeing, and how this can be used in interventions
- The core values and beliefs of occupational therapy
- Professional attitudes and behaviours
- Critical thinking and reasoning skills, including research skills
- Occupational therapy process skills
- Skills in the analysis and use of occupations as therapeutic media
- Entrepreneurial and leadership skills
A minimum of 1,000 hours is spent on practice placements. Students gain experience in occupational therapy services or in new settings where the occupational therapist role could be introduced. Placements vary in length and cover a range of different practice areas.
We have OT teams based on both sites and in the community.
Specialties include: Stroke, enablement team, discharge to assess, falls team, emergency department, acute medicine, neuro outliers, traunma and orthopedics and care of the elderly
You can visit the Royal College of Occupational Therapists website for more information.
Pictured: our fantastic Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust OT teams
