Occupational therapy in primary care
Occupational therapists provide diverse expertise to primary care teams helping patients get fast access to the right care.
Using health population approaches, they offer bespoke services for specific patient groups.
Their interventions are proactive and preventative to keep patients functioning and active. Occupational therapists can help target the biggest causes of reduced life expectancy. They are clinically trained to work holistically across the life span for patients with physical, mental and social needs.
Having an OT in our practice has been transformative. It’s improving patient outcomes and reducing GP stress. Patients are in less distress and attend less frequently.
A general practitioner
We’ve worked with occupational therapists, GPs and others to create a hub of resources to help you.
Thanks to the many occupational therapists who have shared these resources, we’ve got information about what occupational therapists offer in primary care, their skills and impact.
You can find tips for getting started in primary care and building to get universal coverage.
You can find and watch:
- Action examples from occupational therapists across the UK
- Our priorities for primary care occupational therapy.
- Resources like webinars, podcasts, news articles and reports.
- Research about occupational therapy in primary care
You can also join national and local networks.
Anything missing or got questions? Let us know.
Want to know more about occupational therapy in primary care?
In this RCOT Plenary session, hosted by our Chief Executive Steve Ford, we showcase the inspiring work that happening in Sheffield to implement OT in GP surgeries. Occupational therapists, GPs and students share their journey, lessons learnt and top tips so you can apply it locally. We talk about different clinical models, education, research, and leadership in primary care.
In this RCOT Insight session, we spoke to occupational therapists about how they moved into primary care, and the types of patients they see. We also asked them about outcome measures and working with the primary care team.
Growing primary care
We’ve spoken to occupational therapy leaders from Scotland and Wales who’ve developed universal coverage for primary care occupational therapy in their health boards.
We asked about their challenges, successes and how you can have influence to apply this locally and nationally. We spoke to:
- Shonaid McCabe, Occupational Therapy Care Group Lead at Primary Care, NHS Lanarkshire.
- Alex Gigg, Lead Occupational Therapist at Swansea Bay Health Board.
- Alexis Conn, Clinical Lead Occupational Therapist for Mental Health at Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board.
- David (Dai) Davies, Professional Practice Lead for Wales from RCOT.