There is no doubt that Covid-19 has changed the Occupational Therapy landscape, and the past few months have been challenging. Nonetheless, we remain dedicated to our clients, providing the best possible service we can under the circumstances. With restrictions easing and by implementing new creative ways to offer assessments and provide our services, we see brighter days ahead.

WORK ABILITY

When any type of disability affects a person, work disability may occur and contribute to negative consequences not just for the individual but for the society as well.

Although face to face interaction was limited to an extent and we were challenged to find other avenues to serve our clients, such as tele-health and virtual interaction, it did not prevent us from continuing to provide vocational rehabilitation services.

As experienced therapists, we strongly believe that some services such as Functional Capacity Evaluations and Fitness to Work / Return To Work (RTW) Assessments should be done in person. This ensures objectivity, clarification of a client’s effort levels and consistency of participation during an assessment.

As the Covid-19 restrictions ease to level 2, we believe that negotiations with employers for alternative placement / reasonable accommodations will become easier and services such as work hardening, case management and return to work programmes’ timelines can be more effectively managed.

MENTAL HEALTH AND RTW

We have found that the need for mental health services have expanded during the Covid-19 Pandemic. Through Progressive Gain Attainment Programme (PGAP), Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT) and sensory intelligence assessments, we have been able to support our clients during this difficult time and have also equipped them with skills so that they may confidently return to work.

Although we realised that most individuals with a mental health condition prefer face to face interaction, we did provide virtual sessions to accommodate the Covid-19 restrictions.

Eventually, when the pandemic comes to an end, we will continue to offer both face to face and virtual sessions to optimally serve and meet our clients’ needs.

FITNESS-TO-DRIVE ASSESSMENTS

In a world where more and more people work from home, FTD Assessments were not in high demand during the Covid-19 Pandemic till date.

As this service will become more in demand as restrictions are relaxed, we will continue with face to face office based assessments followed by an on-road assessment, in collaboration with a qualified driving instructor.