Occupational therapy — Wellington, Hutt and Kapiti

To contact the occupational therapy team:

• Wellington Regional Hospital — phone 04 385 5999 extension 82373
• Kenepuru Community Hospital — phone 04 385 5999 extension 7090
• Kāpiti Health Centre — phone 04 385 5999 extension 4221

There are occupational therapists at:

• Wellington Regional Hospital
• Kenepuru Community Hospital
• Kāpiti Health Centre

The aim of occupational therapy is to help people participate in everyday activities, such as:

• safely looking after themselves
• enjoying themselves
• contributing to their communities.

Occupational therapists assess the level of functional ability of people who cannot safely or independently carry out roles and meaningful occupations because of:

• temporary illness
• permanent illness
• disability.

We provide occupational therapy to inpatients and outpatients at Wellington Regional Hospital and Kenepuru Community Hospitals, as well as care in the community.

Occupational therapists provide:

• functional assessments to check safety of showering, dressing, transfers or cooking
• cognitive assessments (standardised) to assess current cognitive status and potential safety implications
• equipment assessments for short or long term needs
• home visits to assess safety of the home environment, as well as follow-up visits when patients leave hospital — these could involve helping with housing modifications
• manual therapy and splinting to restore hand function.

We treat people who:

• need increasing assistance with activities of daily living or transfers
• require hand therapy following surgery or due to illness or accident
• demonstrate cognitive impairment which affects their ability to function or to be safe at home
• live alone and have limited social supports
• require equipment on discharge, needing long-term funding.

Your healthcare provider can refer you for this service or you can refer yourself.

To refer yourself, fill out our form.

ORA community referral form

Email the completed form to RES-OpBkOraChs@ccdhb.org.nz