Celebrating Occupational Therapy Week (3 – 9 November 2025)

Shropshire Council’s Occupational Therapy (OT) Team is Celebrating ‘OT Week’, which is a national awareness-raising campaign dedicated to celebrating the life-changing power of occupational therapy. This year the theme is prevention and early intervention.

Celebrating Occupational Therapy Week

OT Week also marks the start of 12 months of campaigning by the Royal College of Occupational Therapists (RCOT). This year the campaign is – Right Support, Right Time: Unlocking the Power of OT.

This will show how Occupational Therapists can help people to stay well for longer and avoid crises when they see them sooner – across all areas of practice and stages of life.

In Shropshire, our Occupational Therapy teams are here to help children, young people, adults, and their carers take part in everyday life as fully as possible. For children, an occupational therapist usually visits your home to get to know your child—their strengths, challenges, and the activities that matter most to them.

After this assessment, they might recommend specialist equipment, suggest home adaptations, offer advice on home safety or rehousing, explore new ways of doing things, or connect to other helpful services.

For adults, an occupational therapist or an occupational therapy assistant will carry out an initial assessment at home or over the phone to understand what matters most and what will help people stay safe and independent. They can then recommend equipment, advise on adaptations and grants, support with home safety or rehousing, and signpost to other services.

Both teams work closely with families, carers, and other professionals with the goal to remove barriers, promote independence, and help people of all ages live safely, comfortably, and confidently in their own homes.

RCOT research has shown that only around 7% of homes in the UK meet basic accessibility standards. Addressing environmental barriers provides a return on investment of £3.17 to every pound spent, for individuals at high risk of falls. In older adults, the provision low-level equipment & minor adaptations can reduce difficulties with activities of daily living by 75%.

One of our Occupational Therapists recently received this feedback from a Service Users Wife, which really encapsulates the goals and impact of the work of the team: “Some of the ‘dis’ has been removed from his ‘disabled’,”—and that’s all thanks to the support, effort, and care you’ve all shown. We would like to personally thank our OT for truly listening and understanding in the way she did. It was a joy for me and the kids to see him moving, engaging, and smiling again.

Cllr Ruth Houghton, portfolio holder for social care, said:

“It’s really important that both adults and children are supported to live safely and well in their own homes and our  professional Occupational Therapists make a huge contribution to this  through  undertaking assessments and providing advice and guidance  on the type of aids, equipment or adaptions that are needed.

There is a lot of information on our web site and I would urge anyone struggling at home to have a look at our web pages to see what aids and  equipment may be available.”

Find out more here.

(Occupational Therapists from left to right – Emma Banks, Anne Ward, Emma-Louise Jansen, Chloe Walton, Kirsty Carter, Debbie Baker, Rachael Hatfield & Azahar Hossain)