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Working with Care homes

We work with care homes throughout the UK, providing advice and support to residents, staff and management across all areas of occupational therapy.

Find out how we can help

Why the OT Practice?

We understand the importance of prompt, reliable and high quality care when it comes to choosing occupational therapists for your residents. We offer:

  • An office-based client manager who is also an experienced OT, to answer your calls and find the right local OT for your residents' needs
  • Simple, transparent, fixed fees which are inclusive of travel
  • A timely service, with no waiting lists
  • The largest nationwide network of private occupational therapists in the UK, ensuring we can provide expert therapists in your local area
  • A strict selection, interview and registration process for OT Practice therapists to guarantee only the highest standard of care
  • A straightforward online quotation and referral system
  • Reports that are always quality-assured by our client manager before delivery

Clinical specialisms

All our occupational therapists are at least 5 years post-qualifying with at least 2 years experience within their specialist field. The specialist areas of OT we cover are:

Services

Seating assessments

A common reason for referrals from care homes, our seating assessments can help you ensure comfy day seating for the entire home community, or provide a detailed review of an individual resident's postural needs including night-time positioning and static or dynamic chairs. Following our assessment we would provide a detailed report of our recommendations, or organise their implementation at your request.

Moving & handling

A moving & handling assessment involves our OT examining the needs of both residents and carers, looking at current procedures and use of equipment and providing guidance on techniques and best practice. With a clear picure of current and future moving & handling needs and the possible risks they present, our report offers detailed recommendations, a risk assessment and a moving & handling plan. Recommendations may include the trial of new equipment equipment or the provision of additional training.

Environmental assessments

Care homes often approach us for advice on maintaining an accessible environment for the current and future needs of their community. An environmental assessment can be undertaken for a single room or individual resident, or comprise a full audit of the property to help you meet legislative requirements as well as other best practice guidance on accessibilty for residents.

Equipment reviews

An equipment review may be requested for a specific resident with identified needs or for the entire home community, to ensure that purchases are fit for purpose, and appropriate for both immediate and longer-term needs.

Training

Our training packages for care homes are varied and always tailored to the needs of each home community. We can offer one-off sessions in moving & handling or seating training for carers, for example - or arrange and deliver a care home's entire annual training schedule.

Our approach to working with care homes

Having worked with care homes for many years we have refined and tailored our service to match their needs. There are three core elements we believe are critical to delivering exceptional service to care homes.

Our client managers

From your initial enquiry to us you will have an experienced, office based OT as your single point of contact on the end of the phone and email to manage your referrals. They will work closely with our OT’s looking after your cases to ensure quality, consistency and timeliness.

Our processes & systems

We manage many cases at any one time and have hundreds of OTs working in the community so ensuring every case runs smoothly requires dependable processes and systems. We have refined our processes and invested in bespoke systems to provide the foundation to The OT Practice operations, always ensuring the experience for our clients is enhanced not encumbered by any processes or systems we use.

Our nationwide team of therapists

We have the largest team of private OT’s in the UK and all passed a strict selection, interview & registration process to ensure we only have the best therapists on our team. Clinical skills and experience are essential, but to become an OT Practice therapist our team members must demonstrate a track record of professionalism and the right attitude to customer service, as well as having an energetic and innovative approach.

Can we help?

Call our client managers on 0330 024 9910
Or email enquiries@theotpractice.co.uk

Some companies & organisations we have worked with

Care Tech
Sunrise
Grayshott Spa
The Good Care Group

Next steps

Initial consultation

The referrals we receive from care homes vary in terms of the specialist area of occupational therapy required and the scale and complexity of involvement needed. If you would like to make a referral, or just an enquiry, then one of our client managers (who will also be an experienced OT) will discuss the case with you to establish the right therapist from our team based on service you are looking for, your location and your residents' clinical needs.

Quotation & referral

Once our client manager has established your needs, you (or your resident's family if preferred) would be sent a quotation detailing the actions we propose and the associated fee. All our fees are fixed, transparent and inclusive of travel costs. If further work might be required in the future then we would also provide as much detail about this as we can to inform your future budgeting decisions.

Referral

Once you, your resident or their family have had time to consider the options and costs, and if you would like to proceed, the next step would be our online referral form. Of course, if you would like guidance on completing the form, or if you have any other questions at that time, our client manager will always be available to assist.

Assessment

When it comes to performing our collaborative assessments, we always arrange visits at times to suit you, your residents, their carers and families - all of whom are welcome to attend the assessment if desired.

Report & recommendations

Our reports are professional, concise and jargon-free. We provide a clinical analysis of our observations and any professional judgements made, highlighting risks and making clear recommendations for addressing them. Where additional intervention is recommended, this is clearly costed and followed up with a detailed quotation to ensure you are able to come to an informed decision.

Treatment

If treatment is required then our packages are typically delivered in blocks of eight, which allows for a review or rest period between treatments if needed. We set initial goals which are reviewed towards the end of the sessions. This allows us to revise the treatment plan if necessary although, since our goal is always our clients' independence, we never recommend extending treatment beyond that which is absolutely necessary from a clinical standpoint.

Supplier agreements

If your homes are likely to make multiple referrals then we would be happy to discuss how you might benefit from a more structured Service Level Agreement and to establish if there is any scope for volume discounts.

Client feedback

Can we help?

Call our client managers on 0330 024 9910
Or email enquiries@theotpractice.co.uk

Commonly asked questions by care home referrers

What services can you provide for care homes?

We can provide experienced occupational therapists to work on a one-to-one basis with individual residents, either as a one-off assessment and advice package or for a longer period of intervention. Some examples of how we can work with care homes include:

  • Rehabilitation.
  • Seating and wheelchairs.
  • Bespoke moving & handling.
  • Specialist equipment.
  • Training for staff in areas such as moving & handling.

Find out more about our specialist areas and how our OT’s can help.

Are you nationwide?

Yes – we have an extensive network of OT’s across the UK and will have an OT to help no matter where you are.

Find out more about the locations we cover and how our OT’s can help.

How do we arrange an OT visit?

We have dedicated office based client managers (who are OTs themselves) who will be able to talk through the best options to meet the needs of your residents and/or staff. they will email you an individualised quote for this work, together with a link to our online referral form and our T&Cs.

How long will it take until an OT can visit us?

From receiving the referral we generally aim for the OT to get in touch with you within 2 working days and for the visit to be within one week – although we can be flexible so that it is the most convenient time for your residents and/or staff. We can also respond to emergency requests such as an unplanned admittance or hospital discharge.

What will happen during/after the assessment visit for one of our residents?

The OT will have made contact with the relevant people prior to the visit so will have background information. Usually the assessment visit will include spending time with the resident and completing the clinical assessment, as well as reviewing relevant information in the resident’s file. The OT will discuss the recommendations with the key people and then write a comprehensive report which will be emailed to the referrer.

What happens after we have received the report for our resident?

The report will contain recommendations of the next steps – whether this is ongoing rehabilitation, trial and/or purchase of equipment, training, or other follow up. It will provide details of how you can arrange to trial/purchase any equipment and the costings of any follow up occupational therapy. If you wish to go ahead with the therapy recommendations then our client manager can arrange this for you.

How will we and the resident / their family be updated when the OT is working with our resident?

The OT will make detailed case notes after each visit and will maintain contact with key people over phone and/or email if necessary. The OT will also write a progress report at the end of a block of treatment or on a monthly basis as required.

Looking for more information?

We have more commonly asked questions relating to the specialist areas you may require: