Why occupational therapy matters?

Occupational therapy is about being able to do the things you want to do and have to do. This might be overcoming challenges going to work, at school, sports or managing every day tasks.

We’re sharing Molly’s story for Occupational Therapy Week (6 to 12 November 2023). Molly, 47, was diagnosed with Bi-Polar Affective Disorder, Chronic Epigastric Pain (pain below the ribs), Chronic Fatique and Migraine and suffers with low mood and appetite, poor memory, concentration and sleep. Molly also has suicidal thoughts but no intent.

Molly is supported by Janet Abana, Occupational Therapy Assistant in our City Central Local Mental Health Team. Molly is seeing positive results, improved structure/routine and building her confidence thanks to the care and support of our occupational therapy team.

Molly’s story

"Following on from the occupational therapy and needs assessment of Molly there were quite a few goals identified to enable her to live a more meaningful life, with purpose and more structure" says Janet. “These included getting dressed every day, going out of the house once a month independently, planning nutritious meals and support to change the bed.

“Each goal has been tackled in order of immediate priority, and we set up alarms to help with reminders to get into a reasonable habit of getting up and having a wash, change clothing and then doing some menu planning around healthy choices considering preferences.

“Molly was able to put achievable goals in place that factored in the chronic fatigue by engaging in the occasional bulk cooking during times of increased energy levels and freezing for times when less able. We explored the idea of having an online shopping basket with a preferred supermarket when energy levels were low. We slowly exposed Molly to start using public transport and travelling on the bus. This led to Molly travelling independently to meet me at the park and then going to the park from prompts and reminders.

“Molly has struggled a lot with the motivation to meet her activities of daily living. Different things had been tried but did not appear to be helping. In a recent review, we discussed and agreed that we would try prompting with calls for a certain number of times in the week as Molly felt this might help. Going forward the plan is to do this for two months to help get into the habit of meeting this goal and to start doing this independently. The plan appears to be working so far and Molly is quite pleased with the positive changes.

“Being part of a Local Mental Health Team means we support clients by working together with them to get better from mental health issues in the short to medium term.

“I have found that working in this role over the years, my clients are either at a point in their lives where they are content with the baseline they have presented with or are ready to make that conscientious effort of making a positive change in their lives and mental wellbeing.”

You can find out more about occupational therapy for mental health service on our website.

If you’re interested in occupational therapy as a career, visit our recruitment website.