Online Occupational Therapy Services
Occupational therapy (OT) helps people with activities that they do in their everyday life. Things like getting dressed, washing, going to the toilet, using hands, mobilising and travelling safely, planning, understanding money, and understanding how to deal with different sights/sounds/textures, are all things that online Occupational Therapists (OTs) can help with.
Who does Umbo provide services for?
At Umbo we are able to provide online occupational therapy services for a wide range of people, including:
- Children: with developmental delays, with particular syndromes or diagnoses (e.g. autism, Down Syndrome), brain injuries, learning disabilities, intellectual disabilities, and hearing loss, including for early childhood intervention.
- Adults: who have had a stroke or brain injury, intellectual or learning disability, degenerative diseases (e.g. Parkinson’s, motor neurone disease), cerebral palsy, autism, psychosocial disability or mental health conditions, etc.
What can online occupational therapy help with?
Online occupational therapy can help people with activities that they do in their everyday life. This includes helping people who have difficulty with:
- Getting dressed, washing and going to the toilet
- Concentrating on a task
- Moving their body how they want to
- Using hands, including writing, drawing and cutting
- Mobilising and travelling safely
- Planning and carrying out chores or jobs
- Understanding how to count money and create a budget
- Understanding how to deal with different sights/sounds/textures
- Managing emotions in appropriate ways
Can you do assessments?
Yes, at Umbo we are able to provide many types of occupational therapy assessments online, including:
- Motor assessments
- Fine and gross motor
- Visuo-motor integration (testing coordination)
- Handwriting
- Sensory assessments
- Sensory processing and integration
- Developmental assessments (to measure where someone is in regard to developmental milestones)
- Social/emotional assessments
- Cognition/adaptive behaviour assessments
- Activities of daily living
- Functional assessments (sometimes called Functional Capacity Assessments)
- Assistive Technology (AT) assessments
- Housing options assessments
- Manual handling assessments
- Energy conservation and fatigue management assessments
There are some specific types of assessments which can be more challenging to complete online, or where you may need to have someone present locally with particular skills or equipment (e.g. Home safety/modification assessments). There are a few types of assessments (e.g. Driving assessments) that require a therapist to be physically present and so cannot be done online. Please see this article for more information or contact us to find out if we can provide what you need.
Is online occupational therapy effective?
Yes! A growing body of evidence shows that online delivery of therapy can be as effective as face to face. Online therapy has many other benefits too, including being convenient and accessible for people in regional and rural areas.
How does online occupational therapy work?
At Umbo online therapy is not just zoom plus business-as-usual. It’s much more diverse than simply videoconferencing. Umbo therapists provide an individualised approach to each person, using the latest evidence, and a variety of technologies and engagement techniques.
We work around individual and family needs and schedules to deliver the best outcomes. This could involve our therapists delivering short sessions with the individual, their family, school or preschool, or being available outside of consultations via phone or text.
Umbo champions person-centred therapy. It means the person receiving therapy leads the conversation. We believe that the most effective therapy occurs when support is given in the environment where the person lives, learns, works or plays. Therefore we work with the family, and teach skills to you or to other supporters. This means you’re achieving real-life goals, rather than just achieving goals in a clinic.
An Umbo therapist doing an online session with a client
Umbo therapists have lots of experience engaging children during online sessions
Online occupational therapy and autism
An occupational therapist is a key person involved in working with children and adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Sensory processing and managing emotions in appropriate ways can be key challenges for many people with ASD and these are areas that Umbo's online occupational therapist can help with. Online therapy is an inclusive and gentle approach to therapy, where the person can be in the comfort and familiarity of their own home, which can be helpful for some people with ASD.
I’m still not sure if an occupational therapist is what I need...
No problem, just send us an inquiry explaining the difficulties that you/your child/your family member is having and we can let you know whether an occupational therapist or other kind of professional would be most appropriate. It’s better to ask and get a clear answer!