Occupational therapy

A graduate career in occupational therapy involves working with people experiencing physical, psychological or social difficulties to achieve the things they want to do in their daily lives. Occupational therapists can work with people of all ages and in a variety of different workplaces such as a person’s home, hospitals, day centres or schools.

Clients may need the help of an occupational therapist  for a one-off assessment or could require regular interaction for a period of weeks, months or even years depending on their needs. Therapists do not provide ‘care’ for their clients (as a nurse would) but rather provide therapeutic treatments and often work with people as a facilitator, encouraging them to overcome their problems themselves. They’ll often offer advice about how to do things differently using specialist equipment, for example, or by developing new skills and capabilities that will help people live as independently as possible. An therapist's involvement could therefore include teaching a person with a hand injury a different method for getting dressed, making adaptations to that person’s home or workplace to facilitate their everyday activities, and liaising with a range of different people such as families, carers, social workers, other healthcare staff, local authorities and housing departments to ensure their client gets the support they need. Occupational therapists may even be involved in helping people to develop new social networks.

Occupational therapists usually work a conventional week but there are some jobs such as homelessness outreach or accident and emergency that require more flexibility. Most occupational therapists will supervise other staff in addition to their client work and are often involved in research as well as education – lecturing in colleges or universities. They are principally employed by the NHS but also work in social services, private practice and a growing number of voluntary organisations.

New developments

The support and advice of an occupational therapists in helping people on sickness benefits to get back to work is a fundamental part of a new programme being developed by the Department for Work and Pensions. This will generate a host of new jobs as well as allow therapist to work in a new area where their skills will be in demand.

Fancy a job as an ocupational therapist? Here are the skills you'll require

• Patience, empathy and compassion.
• The ability to work in a team with other health and social care professionals.
• Creativity and lateral thinking to get around obstacles.
• Great interpersonal skills.

Starting out after graduation

During training, occupational therapists  work with their own clients under close supervision so that they can hit the ground running as a new practitioner. However, they receive plenty of supervision and support from colleagues. As they become more familiar with the role, they soon work with a larger and more complex group of clients and become increasingly self-reliant. Further information is available from the College of Occupational Therapists.

In brief

• Best bits
  Seeing people do the daily activities that are most important to them – often after a struggle to gain new skills.
• Worst bits
  Filling in the necessary notes and paperwork.
• Don’t bother if...
  ... you lack patience and empathy.
  ... you don’t like change: things are always moving fast.