Occupational therapy — Hawke's Bay

Contact Occupational Therapy services by phone on 06 878 8109

In Hawke's Bay we have occupational therapists working across both physical and mental health and addiction services. This includes:

• Mental Health and Addiction Services — inpatient services, emergency mental health, community, older persons' and children and family services.
• Community rehabilitation, early supported discharge, neuro outpatients and stroke support discharge.
• Child Development Services — Child Disability Services, Developmental Assessment Programme, Gateway programme and Autism Spectrum Care Coordination.

The primary goal of occupational therapy (whakaora ngangahau) is to enable individuals to participate in activities of everyday life. Occupational therapy can help people who have had an acute illness requiring an inpatient stay or those living in the community with a chronic illness or disability.

An occupational therapist can work with you to modify the activity or the environment to better support your ability to engage in tasks to support you to look after yourself.

You may need occupational therapy if you have difficulty completing everyday tasks due to physical or cognitive abilities, or have mental health and addiction concerns.

Your environment may also be a factor — how your home is set up and what formal or informal supports you have access to.

What we can do to help

An occupational therapist (nga kaiwhakaora ngangahau) can help you identify the tasks you find difficult and help find ways to make them easier by:

• modifying tasks or the environment
• teach you new ways to complete tasks
• support you in developing new skills, abilities and interests.

Occupational therapists work with people of all ages, providing help with:

• preparing and eating meals
• recreation and exercise
• using a computer or workstation
• showering or bathing
• getting things done on time and done well
• having enough things to do and the confidence to do them
• developing supportive relationships and friendships.

Adaptive Equipment

There may be adaptive equipment available to assist you do everyday tasks either while you are recovering or on a long-term basis. This will require an assessment by an occupational therapist to determine if adaptive equipment is an option for you.

You can be referred to occupational therapy services by your healthcare provider or by another health professional involved in your care.