Primary Care Occupational Therapy Service
Telephone: 01698 755 175
​Who are we?
Primary care occupational therapists (OTs) help people who have noticed that the everyday activities that they need or want to do are starting to become more difficult.
The Primary Care Occupational Therapy service is based in GP surgeries across Lanarkshire. The information below will help to identify if an assessment from Primary Care Occupational Therapy might be helpful.
What do we do?
We know that getting support early on when your health changes is important. Your Occupational Therapist will work with you to explore the difficulties you are experiencing in your daily routine and set realistic goals with you. Difficulties may include:
At Home
- Personal Care
- Housework
- Cooking
- Hobbies and Leisure
In the Community
- Using public transport
- Shopping
- Socialising
- Being physically active
At Work
- Support to return to or maintain working role
- Carer roles
- Volunteering
- Education
These difficulties may be due to recent changes in your health, such as:
- Anxiety
- Fear of falling
- Pain
- Low mood
- Work-life balance
- Stress
- Frailty
- Memory concerns
- Fatigue
Working together we can offer you practical support, education and advice to help you manage your health and do the activities that you need or want to do.
For example:
- Learning skills to help you live well with pain or fatigue-related conditions
- Developing practical coping strategies to manage stress, anxiety and low mood
- Supporting you to remain at work, return to work or improve work-life balance
- Supporting you to age well
- Offering advice about aids and equipment that could make your life easier
Our animation below will tell you a little more about what we offer.
Who can access the Primary Care Occupational Therapy service?
You need to be:
- Registered with a Lanarkshire GP practice;
- Aged 16 or over and not in school;
- noticing a change in your ability to carry out your usual roles and activities; and
If you are already in contact with another service which offers occupational therapy, (for example community mental health team, addiction services or community rehabilitation teams), please ask your health worker to link you in with their occupational therapist.
How to access the service
You can:
- Telephone our hub on 01698 755 175 and speak to one of our admin staff or leave a message with your contact details
- Pick up a leaflet from your GP surgery, fill in the tear off slip and hand it in to the GP receptionist
- Ask your GP or other health professional within your GP practice to refer you to our service
What to expect from us
Once we receive your referral, an occupational therapist will telephone you to find out if primary care OT is the right service for you.
We may direct you to another service if this would meet your needs better. If we feel primary care occupational therapy could meet your needs, we will arrange a longer appointment to get to know you better and find out what matters to you.
We will discuss your health, the difficulties you are experiencing, your routine, roles, interests and goals. We may also use formal assessments to help us plan your treatment programme.
Your occupational therapy appointments may take place at your GP surgery, over the phone, by video call or in your own home.
What we expect from you
Working with primary care occupational therapy, you’ll agree goals together with your therapist and work at a pace that is right for you. This will work best if you are ready and able to commit to regular appointments and to focus on trying out new strategies between your sessions.
Feedback
The Primary Care Occupational Therapy Team welcome feedback and are keen to understand what you found helpful during your contact with us and what we can improve on.
Click on our recent stories to read what patients have to say about Primary Care Occupational Therapy.
Please see contact details below for Care Opinion if you would like to provide feedback.
We care about your opinion, please share your story!
Website
Visit: www.careopinion.org.uk/2923/primarycareoccupationaltherapy
Telephone
Call Care Opinion on: 0800 122 3135
If you would prefer to have support from our team to complete this process, please don’t hesitate to call us on 01698 755 175 or e-mail occupationaltherapyprimarycareteam@lanarkshire.scot.nhs.uk
