Celebrating Occupational Week 2025!

Celebrating Occupational Week 2025! 

Every day, the people we support and their teams are making progress towards greater independence through rehabilitation, one step at a time. As part of Occupational Therapy Week 2025, we spoke to Nicci Terry, a student completing her placement at Kerwin Court, about her experience working towards becoming a qualified Occupational Therapist (OT) and what it means to be an OT. 

Can you give us an overview of your work? 

My experience has been mostly acute, so based in hospitals, learning about the differences between what our assessments do and how our assessments can teach us what we need to know about our people which informs our practice, understanding their current strengths and needs, to lead our interventions and work towards their personal goals. 

During my time at Kerwin Court it’s been interesting to learn about the neurobehavioural approach and seeing how the OTs are working with the people we support to retrain old and potentially learn new skills. We work with people to find a way that’s best for them, to achieve what it is they want or need to do. I have assisted and supported people in their skills to make their own breakfasts and lunches, to access the community, attend local community services and practise shopping skills. 

I’ve recently started a group called Seasonal Designs, which is an arts and crafts group that combines crafting with skills-building. The people we support will be creating decorations for the unit in their shared spaces all while enhancing their socialising skills, team building skills and creativity for mindfulness.  

We’re currently working on a cafe project, which also focuses on their executive functions, managing their memory, planning and attention skills, as well as communication and team building. This project can be useful for practising vocational skills, where we will set up a ‘cashiers / service desk’ to serve drinks and cakes to the staff and fellow people we are supporting. 

What does a typical day in your role look like? 

It differs depending on what setting you’re in. There are a lot of diverse roles and diverse settings out there, but generally the OT process is pretty much the same. However, at Kerwin Court, it is very versatile – for example, in the mornings you can be supporting or assessing someone in their morning routine, with showering and dressing and making their own breakfasts. Then you can be accompanying people to a local equine rehabilitation centre or to a local community shed to create woodwork projects, or take someone out swimming. Then in an afternoon we can be supporting them in upper limb rehab or taking them into the garden for horticultural therapy. There are an array of meaningful occupations and activities we can do with people depending on their preferences. 

Often, I’ll be liaising with the families, learning a lot about each person and who they were before their injury. I’ll also be working with the rehab support workers quite closely and seeing care plans. 

As an OT student here at Kerwin, I have had a host of different opportunities to work with people to enhance their recovery and rehab achievements. I have the freedom to think “how can I support this person, what can we do together that will benefit them and they would enjoy?” That’s one of the many things I love about OT, and was one of the reasons why I wanted to be an OT in the first place. 

What drew you to the OT profession? 

Initially, I was looking at nursing, but something didn’t feel right. When I was a carer working on a stroke ward, I saw what the OTs were doing and as I watched one, it dawned on me that is what I wanted to do. I noticed how they worked with that person on their independence. 

It was how she was working with them and instead of doing something for them, it was the not doing something for them. The OT’s approach was “You try it, you do it” and if they couldn’t, they worked together to problem solve it and created goals together to work towards achieving it. It made me think, “Yeah, that person then isn’t on their own. They’ve got someone there who’s an advocate for them and that wants to work with them to achieve their goals.” 

I saw that OT builds on a patient’s skills and increases their confidence to help make them feel more independent and make them feel more like themselves. It is what I absolutely adore about OT. OTs help empower people. 

What do you think people might not know about the OT profession? 

It’s not about equipment. It’s not just about discharge planning or simply just making a cup of tea. We are constantly assessing the situation and each individual. We’re looking at how and why they interact with the world around them, how they manipulate objects, how they’re experiencing any sensory changes, altered vision, – we look at their insight into their impairments and help improve this, or their motivation and we look at their problem-solving skills and executive functioning.  

We look at the people we support completely holistically. OT is about everything that that person could possibly do in their day-to-day lives and what it is to them. Are they a mum? A work colleague? Do they want to go back to the workplace? To access their social community activities, like exercise groups, coffee mornings? Do they have to manage their finances? Do they drive? Go to college, go to their place of worship? We will try and work with them to achieve and accomplish. 

So, it’s very varied, and I don’t think I appreciated when I got into OT how varied it was – and it’s wonderful. No day is boring – it’s always different. 

Thank you to Nicci for speaking to us about her experience, and thank you to all our amazing Occupational Therapists for the incredible difference you make every day for the people we support.