Occupational therapy

As part of your treatment and recovery you may be referred to an occupational therapist. They are part of the Allied Health Professions at Sussex Partnership.  

Occupational therapists see beyond diagnoses and limitations to your hopes and aspirations. They look at the relationship between the activities you do every day – your occupations – the challenges you face and the environment where you live. 

Occupational therapists will work with you to create a plan to enable you to better do the things you most want to do. The plan is practical and may include grading activities, adapting your environment or activity and looking at new occupational opportunities. Occupational therapists work with employment specialists to support people to retain work, return to work or change work. They are expert in facilitating groups that support recovery.

All our occupational therapists work as part of a multi-disciplinary team (MDT) across most services at Sussex Partnership Foundation Trust. All referrals go directly to the multi-disciplinary team and occupational therapists get allocated on referral.

Allied Health Professions (AHPs) at Sussex Partnership are a diverse group of clinicians who have a central role in the services we provide. They are highly specialised and trained to provide treatments for people of all ages in different settings - home, community and hospital. They work to improve health and wellbeing, enabling people to be as independent as possible and to live full, active and healthy lives.

AHPs are the third largest workforce in England. There are over 400 allied health professionals at Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, working across seven of the 14 AHP professions, which include:

  • Art therapists
  • Dietitians
  • Occupational therapists
  • Paramedics
  • Physiotherapists
  • Speech and language therapists