Children’s Occupational Therapy Service
Children’s Occupational therapy service in Telford & Wrekin.
Our Occupational Therapy team is based at Darby House in Telford and is made up of a senior occupational therapist, an occupational therapist and an occupational therapy assistant. We work with children, young people and their families living within Telford & Wrekin region.
What is occupational therapy and how can it help?
Occupational therapists and occupational therapy assistants in our service help children/young people who aren't able to/or are struggling to undertake activities at home due to an illness or disability, or they aren't as independent as they could be.
Occupational therapists and occupational therapy assistants will support by looking at different ways of carrying out daily living activities, providing specialist equipment and/or adapting the home environment.
What will an occupational therapist do?
The occupational therapist, or occupational therapy assistant, will carry out an initial assessment at home. The assessment will consider those activities that the child/young person, wants to do, needs to do, or is expected to do, and identify their strengths and challenges.
Following assessment the occupational therapist, or assistant, may decide to make recommendations, to do one or more of the following:
- Recommend and provide specialist equipment for use at home to support the child/young person, or the person/s who care for them, with participation in daily living activities
- Advise on/make recommendations for adaptations at the child/young person’s home to improve access to their essential facilities, or to assist the person/s who cares for them, and advise on grants that may be available
- Provide support and advice regarding rehousing - unfortunately we are not able to source housing
- Provide support and advice regarding safety within the home - prior to receiving an assessment, parents/carers will have already undertaken reasonable measures to keep their child safe, as would be expected for any child.
- Signpost to other professionals and voluntary agencies
What we don’t do
- We don't provide sensory integration interventions or equipment
- We don't provide wheelchairs. For an assessment, please contact Shropshire Wheelchair and Postural Services on 01743 444051
- We don't provide physiotherapy or ‘hands-on therapy’ sessions
- We don't complete moving and handling assessments. Please contact Single Point of Referral 0333 3584584 for further information
- We don't assess for specialist car seats or harnesses - an assessment can be arranged through RDAC https://www.ridc.org.uk/content/car-seats-disabled-children
- The Occupational Therapy Team do not provide items which are aimed at general home safety for children. These items include; standard baby/video monitors, standard window locks/restrictors, standard cupboard/door safety locks, which are readily available for purchase
How to make a referral for a child (0-18)?
All referrals can be made by calling Family Connect 01952 385385.
What will happen once a referral has been made?
The referrer might receive a phone call from a duty worker to get further information.
If the referral is accepted, the child/young person’s parent/carer will be contacted by an occupational therapist or an occupational therapy assistant to arrange an initial home assessment visit. Please be aware there is a waiting time for an occupational therapy assessment.
If the referral isn't accepted, or the needs cannot be met through the Children’s Occupational Therapy service, we will, where possible, signpost onto other services.