The Hummingbird

Occupational Therapy is global profession that recognises that there is healing in what we do in our everyday lives. Essentially, an Occupational Therapist can pull apart what you do in your daily living from so many different angles, that we can find the barriers, solutions and communicate this to other services so they can understand.

When I say different angles, I mean personal, psychological, physical, emotional, cultural, institutional, geographical and the list keeps going...

I usually sum it up as 'I use things within your daily life to find evidence-based solutions and healing.'

A Mental Health Occupational Therapist focuses mostly on things that effect your mood and emotions. So our knowledge base may include experience with many different kinds of psychological theories and therapies. It will be likely that we have worked alongside psychologists, psychiatrists and other professionals in a hospital setting when in NZ. 

When we apply daily living with emotional and mental health, we may consider how your experiences are effecting things that are important to you like your role as a parent, your duties at work or perceptions of how you will live your life in the future. We do much more than this, but this is a good place to start getting the idea.

Now the Primary Care part. This is the name given to the sector of health where you would first access medical help for your health issues. It is also the place where business and health meet. You would experience this when visiting your General Practitioner, you pay a portion of money to access a service, that contributes to the service your doctor gives you. Primary care is therefore the first point of contact for seeking help for your health.

When applying this to Mental Health Occupational Therapy, we could say that in Primary Care we aim to offer services that prevent further escalation of symptoms and improve access to appropriate care in a timely manner. We also empower people to develop the skills needed to engage with future therapies and address barriers that have stopped people from asking for help.

I understand this is a lot to take on board, but let me put it this way.

Primary Mental Health Occupational Therapists are useful and worth considering if you ever need help in life.