The multidisciplinary team in primary care - cooperation between an occupational therapist and a general practitioner
Abstract
Cooperation between a general practitioner and an occupational therapist can be mutually beneficial, the doctor can delegate part of his work to a specialist (occupational therapist), thus making his work more efficient and improving the quality of the care provided, and on the contrary, the process of availability and starting communication with the patient/client will be significantly easier for the occupational therapist. The general practitioner can expect from the occupational therapist knowledge and skills in rehabilitation, self-sufficiency training, selection of compensatory aids, vocational assessment, counselling and education, prevention of risks in the home environment, and proposal for modification and adaptation of the home environment.
An occupational therapist can be helpful to a general practitioner in deciding on the termination of temporary incapacity for work/initiation of the procedure for awarding a disability pension, suspension of a driver's license, speeding up the process of transferring a patient to social residential facilities, reducing administration and increasing the specification in the selection of compensatory aids, early detection of functional deficits with by subsequently mitigating their consequences, the prevention of new diseases increases the safety and quality of life of patients in the home environment. The article provides basic information about the field of occupational therapy, about occupational therapy in the Czech Republic, the competencies of an occupational therapist, how to correctly indicate occupational therapy, the selection of compensatory aids, vocational assessment, the international classification of functional abilities, disability and health (ICF) and telerehabilitation.