A little about Victoria
Victoria
Victoria is the director of OT Guru and the lead OT. She is based in Bedfordshire. She provides physical & cognitive rehabilitation programmes, postural management & vocational rehabilitation. She has case management experience & holds a qualification in moving & handling.
What is Occupational Therapy?
Occupational therapy considers the "whole" person
Occupational therapy (OT) is a health and social care profession, regulated by the Health and Care Professions Council.
Occupational therapy takes a “whole-person approach” to both mental and physical health and well-being and enables individuals to achieve their full potential.
What does "Occupation" mean?
Occupational therapy provides practical support to empower people to facilitate recovery and overcome barriers preventing them from doing the activities (or occupations) that matter to them. This support increases people's independence and satisfaction in all aspects of life.
"Occupation" as a term refers to practical and purposeful activities that allow people to live independently and have a sense of identity. This could be essential day-to-day tasks such as self-care, work or leisure.
Occupational Therapy helps you look forward to the future
An occupational therapist will consider all of the patient’s needs - physical, psychological, social and environmental. This support can make a real difference giving people a renewed sense of purpose, opening up new horizons, and changing the way they feel about the future.
RCOT, 2018
Clinical Services
Neuro-Rehabilitation
Neuro-Rehabilitation
Neuro-Rehabilitation
OT Guru Occupational Therapists apply knowledge and skills in assessing and treating cognitive, perceptual, and physical difficulties caused by acquired brain injuries, or other neurological diseases
Moving & Handling
Neuro-Rehabilitation
Neuro-Rehabilitation
OT Guru Occupational Therapists can complete moving & handling assessments and risk assessments. We can provide risk management plans & advice on various moving & handling equipment
Functional Rehab
Neuro-Rehabilitation
Functional Rehab
Occupational Therapists at OT Guru can help clients who have difficulties performing daily tasks which are important to them such as personal care, domestic tasks, difficulty accessing the community and participating in social roles
Vocational Rehab
Assistive Equipment
Functional Rehab
OT Guru can provide support with return to work programmes including carrying out work site evaluations, liaising with Occupational Health and Human Resources departments, providing guidance on graded return to work programmes and any modifications, aids or adaptations that are necessary to facilitate this
Assistive Equipment
Assistive Equipment
Assistive Equipment
OT Guru Occupational Therapists can assess your home or work environment and make recommendations for equipment which may assist you to do the things that are important to you, with greater ease. We have contacts who are specialists in housing adaptations.
Home Environment
Assistive Equipment
Assistive Equipment
Home assessments can be completed to analyse the risks within the home and make recommendations for minimising those risks, which often include falls. Suggestions can be made for aids and adaptations which may make doing things easier, such as equipment to help get in and out of the bath safely, the need for grab rails or ramps, or useful gadgets for the kitchen or dressing.
Other services
Training
Training can be provided for health professionals including support workers, rehabilitation assistants, therapists and other professionals who are keen to learn more about a specific client's needs. This might include family members or the workplace who want to know more about how to help their relative or employee to manage day-to-day tasks, to optimise work performance, or the best ways to provide care or use specialised aids or equipment.
Training can be offered on a range of topics including health conditions such as acquired brain injury, fatigue management, or anxiety; treatment programmes, and other clinical issues such as upper limb or postural management.
OT Guru is also able to provide training on moving and handling, for clinical and non-clinical staff.
Clinical Supervision and Mentoring
OT Guru can provide clinical supervision and mentoring support to Occupational Therapists and Support Staff working in independent practice, in statutory services, care environments or emerging roles. This is due to considerable experience in management roles which have involved providing clinical supervision, appraisal, performance management and training across a range of services, professionals and client groups
Easing your Transition Home
OT Guru can help plan a smooth transition home from hospital or rehabilitation, and work alongside the professionals to ensure that the correct services, equipment and support is in place to help reduce any anxieties and minimise delays. This may involve clinical aspects such as arranging for special equipment to be in place in time for your discharge home, or more of a case management approach, coordinating the relevant parties to ensure a smooth process for you or your family member.
Neuro-Rehabilitation
OT Guru Occupational Therapists work with people who have suffered from acquired brain injuries resulting from injuries such as traumatic brain injuries, hypoxia, removal of brain tumours or strokes. We can also work with people who have progressive neurological conditions including multiple sclerosis, motor neurone disease or Parkinsons disease.
Neuro-Occupational Therapy is a specialist, complex area of OT and requires the therapist to apply knowledge and skills in assessing and treating cognitive, perceptual, and physical difficulties. It also involves the psycho-social aspects and roles which a person undertakes. The complex and varied way that a neurological problem can impact on a person requires careful assessment and different treatment approaches, such as compensatatory techniques, hands-on therapy and practice of functional activities. There is no one rule for all people, so a tailor-made approach to treatment planning is essential. Helping a person to overcome cognitive problems may include teaching them different techniques for organising or planning how best to complete activities eg. working, managing a diary, or menu planning. Assessment and treatment of perceptual problems may involve visual assessment, compensation strategies and/or referral on to other specialists, such as optometrists.
A person-centred approach, working with the client, key family members, and the wider multi-disciplinary team are usually required to enable a successful outcome. Therapy is provided in the client's home, community or work place.
Specialist services can be provided including postural assessment and seating recommendations, wheelchair prescription; upper limb rehabilitation and splinting, cognitive rehabilitation, behavioural management programmes, moving and handling issues and return to work planning.
Functional Rehabilitation
OT Guru provides Occupational Therapy to a range of clients who have difficulties performing daily tasks which are important to them. These can vary from problems completing personal care (such as washing, dressing, styling hair, or getting in and out the bath or shower); domestic tasks (such as cooking, cleaning, managing laundry, managing finances, shopping); work or education tasks or difficulties doing previous roles like being a parent.
Assistance can be provided for transport problems such as accessing the community, wheelchair assessments and recommendations, and advice on driving post injury.
OT Guru can help with structuring your days so you feel fulfilled and maintain a sense of productivity. This can be so important for helping to keep our minds active and feeling in good spirits. The difficulties may be caused by a variety of health conditions including orthopaedic injuries, heart conditions, fatigue, pain or cognitive difficulties like dementia.
FAQS
How do I know if Occupational Therapy will help me?
Occupational Therapy aims to improve a person'a ability to do activities which are important to them - do you find it difficult to move around your home? Do you have difficulties remembering to do things? Do you think you will benefit from some equipment in your home? Do you find that you have pain or tiredness which affects your ability to work, study, do things for yourself? Contact us at no cost to discuss your needs and we will see if we can help.
What do I need to consider when selecting an OT?
Look for an Occupational Therapist with the skills and experience to help you with your medical condition, and/or the difficulties you are facing. Consider how the Occupational Therapist works - at OT Guru we are flexible & adapt our treatment plan according to your specific needs
What makes an OT a specialist?
The Occupational Therapist should have the right qualification eg degree or diploma in Occupational Therapy, as well as experience working with the relevant medical conditions and problem. If you aren't sure, the best thing to do is have a chat about your needs, and take it from there.
What qualifications should an OT have?
An Occupational Therapist should have a qualification (diploma or degree) in Occupational Therapy. The therapist may have undertaken additional postgraduate training in specialist areas. All the therapists at OT Guru have the required professional memberships.
What insurance & professional registrations should an OT have?
Independent Occupational Therapists need to have professional indemnity insurance and should be registered with the Royal College of Occupational Therapists and Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC). It is good if the therapist s a member of a specialist section of the Royal College also.
What are the costs & how long does assessment & treatment take?
Our costs are comparable to other independent Occupational Therapy providers. Please get in touch for detailed information.
The amount of treatment sessions needed depends on the problems identified, whether there are other multidisciplinary team professionals involved etc. A better idea can be provided after the initial assessment visit.
Assessments vary depending on the needs of the client - often an initial 2 hours is sufficient to get to know the client, the key problems/difficulties and main goals. Reports can be provided and costs depend on the level of detail needed. Additional assessments may be recommended to give more in-depth information eg. standardised and/or practical assessments.
The number of treatment sessions recommended will depend on the outcome of the assessment process & will be agreed before any treatment goes ahead.
Privacy Policy
This privacy policy sets out how OT Guru Ltd uses and protects information that you give OT Guru Ltd when you use this website.
OT Guru Ltd is committed to ensuring that your privacy is protected. The policy may be changed at times by updating this page. You should check this page from time-to-time to ensure that you are happy with any changes. The policy is effective from 23 May 2018. By continuing to use the website you agree to be bound by these Terms as amended.
What we collect
We will only use Personal Information for the purposes of providing information that you have requested, or for other purposes set out in these terms. We may collect the following information, which identifies you as an individual:
- Name and job title
- Company or organisation
- Contact information including email address/phone numbers
- Demographic information such as postcode
- Other information relevant to customer surveys and/or service developments
What we do with the information we gather
We require this information for the following reasons:
- Internal record keeping
- We may periodically send promotional emails about new initiatives or other information which we think you may find interesting, using the email address which you have provided
- At times, we may also use your information to contact you for market research purposes. We may use the information to customise the website according to your feedback. You can opt out at any time by contacting us at enquiries@otguru.com
Security
We are committed to ensuring that your information is secure. In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure, we have suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online as per the Data Protection Act 1998.
Links to other websites
Our website may contain links to other websites of interest. However, once you have used the links to leave our site, please note that we do not have any control over that website. Therefore we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information you provide whilst visiting such sites. This privacy statement does not govern such sites. You should exercise caution and look at the privacy policy applicable to the website in question.
Cookies
Cookies are small pieces of text sent to your browser when you visit a website. We use cookies for performance and analytics purposes. Cookies help us analyse how our website is being accessed and used. We use cookies to provide insights about our site's performance, such as page views, device information and referral sites.
Controlling your personal information
You may choose to restrict the collection or use of your personal information.
If you do not want the information to be used by OT Guru Ltd for direct marketing purposes, you must inform us in writing to: Victoria Holness-Waud, Director, 19 Chibnall Close, Kempston, Bedfordshire, MK42 7FL
If you have previously agreed to us using your personal information for direct marketing purposes, you may change your mind at any time, by emailing us at enquiries@otguru.com.
We will not sell, distribute or lease your personal information to third parties unless we have your permission or are required to do so by law.
Associates of OT Guru Ltd may be given access to Personal Information we collect but their use shall be limited to the performance of their duties. Our Associates who have access to your Personal Information are required to keep that information confidential and are not permitted to use it for any other purposes other than dealing with requests you submit or to enable you to use the website.
You may request details of Personal Information that we hold about you under the Data Protection Act 1998. If you would like a copy of the information, or if you believe any of the information we are holding about you is incorrect or incomplete, please write to Victoria Holness-Waud, Director, 19 Chibnall Close, Kempston, Bedfordshire, MK42 7FL. We will promptly correct any incorrect information.
If you are concerned that we have breached a privacy law, please contact Victoria Holness-Waud, Director, urgently via email to enquiries@otguru.com. We aim to respond to concerns such as this within 24-48 hours. The complaint will be managed by the Data Protection Officer and additional information will be provided about the investigation and how it will be resolved. If you believe we have not handled your data or dealt with a complaint correctly, you are entitled to complain to the Information Commissioners Office (ICO). Please see www.ico.org.uk for information.
