Occupational Therapy (Children and Families)

Occupational Therapy (OT) supports a person to take part in everyday activities that they need or want to do. 

Occupational Therapy aims to enable and empower participation in daily living activities (occupations), by helping the child or young person to adapt to the challenges they face as a result of their illness, developmental delay or disability.  Activities of daily living include: 

• Self-care
• Productivity (work/school)
• Leisure

The purpose of OT is to help the child or young person to achieve their maximum level of independence, by re-learning skills, adapting the activity or compensating for skills with the use of equipment. In close conjunction with families, the OT supports the child or young person to participate to their full potential in their home, social or classroom environments. The OT may prescribe equipment such as activity chairs, mobility equipment or thermoplastic splints, and/or may recommend adaptations to the environment to support their participation.

Clinical services provided

The Occupational Therapy department provides services to the following clinical teams: 

• Burns & Plastics 
• General Medicine
• Neurology 
• Neurosurgery 
• Orthopaedics & Scoliosis
• Paediatric Liaison Service (Mental Health) 
• Rheumatology
• Spina Bifida

Please note that the department is not currently resourced to provide an out-patient general paediatric developmental service, and children should be referred to their local community services in the first instance.

How to access the OT department

The Occupational Therapy department only accepts referrals for children admitted as inpatients, or those out-patients attending one of the clinical services listed above.  The child must be currently under the care of a hospital consultant.  

Appropriate staff should complete a referral form in full and parental consent should be gained prior to sending the referral.  Referrals should be received before 11am each day. Staff members can download the referral form from the CHI at Temple Street intranet.

What to expect at your outpatient appointment

• All out-patient appointments should check-in at the St Frances’ Clinic reception.  The OT will collect you from there and bring you to the department
• Depending on the clinical service you attend, you may see your OT alone or with another member of the staff, for example, speech and language therapy, physiotherapy. 
• Appointment times can vary between 30 minutes to one hour.
• Your first appointment will spend time at the beginning gathering information of functional skills, daily routines and any presenting difficulties

Before your out-patient appointment

• If you received a questionnaire with your appointment letter please send this back before your appointment or bring it with you.
• If you are already seeing OT locally, please bring along a copy of your most recent reports
• If you have any existing thermoplastic splints please bring them with you.

How to cancel your appointment

• Please let us know as soon as possible if you cannot attend, by calling 01 8784542. Please leave a message on the answer phone if there is no answer.
• We will endeavour to book you in at the next available appointment

Do you offer work shadowing or clinical placement?

We are only in the position to offer clinical placements to students currently attending one of four Irish Universities offering a Bsc or Msc in Occupational Therapy. We cannot offer placements to overseas students.

Contact

Colette Slevin
Occupational Therapist Manager
Occupational Therapy Department 
CHI at Temple Street
Temple Street
Dublin 1
Telephone: (01) 8784542

Useful links and resources

Association of Occupational Therapists in Ireland (AOTI) (containing links to Private OTS nationwide) www.aoti.ie

British Association of Occupational Therapists (BAOT): www.cot.co.uk

Irish Wheelchair Association (IWA): www.iwa.ie