Carers' Perspectives on their Needs and Local Authority Occupational Therapy Practice

Abstract

Chambers et al 2001). The second group of needs relatesUnpaid family carers are the main providers of care for older people in the community. Local authority occupational therapists are required by law to assess the needs of such carers in their work, targeting their interventions to support carers' roles. This small qualitative study identified the perceived needs of nine family carers of adults with physical disabilities in one English county, exploring the extent to which these needs were met by local authority occupational therapists.Data were collected from semi-structured qualitative interviews with nine family carers. These interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed using elements of grounded theory methodology. Six varied categories of carers' needs emerged.Occupational therapists met the participants' needs for practical assistance and information, but not for respite or financial assistance. Regarding support network issues, the participants reported poorly integrated community services and little initial awareness of occupational therapy. Once seen by an occupational therapist, however, they wished to remain 'on file' to gain instant access to a valued source of support. The recommendations made include the generation of family carer targeted occupational therapy information resources, ongoing therapist liaison to raise general practitioners' familiarity with local service provision and additional research.

Selecting from their toolbox of interventions – A realist study of the role of occupational therapists in reablement services

“…In this study, reablement support workers identified that the opinion of families affected whether people accepted equipment. This is in contrast to others studies that have identified family carers as benefitting from the provision of equipment (Dibsdall and Rugg, 2008; Littlechild et al, 2010) and warrants further research.…”