Occupational Therapy Visit

In the middle of November I had a visit from the occupational therapy team at my local authority. As noted in June, it was going to take a while as I am comparatively low on the priority list.

I had a good conversation with the (occupational therapist) OT. She said that she has worked with another person with HSP, so there are enough of us out there to be known!

Useful information:

• When I come to needing a mobility scooter, I can go to my local mobility centre. There are people there who can advise on the various factors which I will need to consider (weight, size, distance/range, terrain ability, load carrying, weather situations, and so on...). For me, this centre is in Fishponds: https://www.drivingmobility.org.uk/information-centres/view/bristol/
• If I wish to talk to a counsellor, I can refer myself to talking therapies. She particularly noted that they offer training in energy management, which I think will become more important as time goes on. My local link is here: https://vitahealthgroup.co.uk/nhs-talking-therapies/bristol-north-somerset-and-south-gloucestershire/
• My local authority have a house which has lots of accessibility adaptions made. I can book an appointment and go and work out which of these may be useful for me in the future. For me, this is in Yate, which is a few miles away:  https://life.southglos.gov.uk/kb5/southglos/directory/service.page?id=t4KaI-tTVRg

There was a good discussion about how things that the OT can provide are funded. They basically have two teams: Occupational therapists assess people, and the Housing team assess buildings. There are various funding streams available, depending on which team and the size/cost of the adaption needed. The items provided by the OT team are not means tested. Small items are provided easily. Larger items (>£1500) have a further process to go through. For housing items, there are two different relevant government Acts of parliament. Small adaptions are not means tested, and are provided through the Care Act. Larger adaptions are means tested, and are provided through the Housing Act. There is a Disabled Facilities Grant available, provided you intend to stay in your house for at least five years. Where costs are means tested, there is a cumulative limit. If you need multiple adaptions, the costs are aggregated together for the means testing.

For me we ended up talking about the absence of a downstairs toilet. There are two obvious routes - one would be to install a downstairs toilet, the other would be to add a stairlift to allow easier access to my upstairs toilet.

Her three main areas for me were: Falls risk, energy management, and future-proofing my house.

I think that my likely items are house adaptions in the small zone - adding a second banister, and getting some blocks to raise the level of my sofa's up a bit higher. There are a lot of other things which I am likely to need in the future, but not right now.