“I am a community occupational therapist (OT) and have worked for the Trust for 14 years, working in lots of different settings.

“We support patients in their own homes to optimise and maintain their independence in daily tasks. Occupation, to an occupational therapist, is any task a person needs to do in order to live a healthy and fulfilling life. Sometimes activities of daily living are compromised due to illness or disability. It is the role of an OT to compensate for some of those deficits by supporting patients with new techniques on how to do things differently, or providing patients with assistive equipment and adaptations to manage activities better.

“Sometimes it’s the small things, like providing a piece of equipment that makes all the difference to optimise a patient’s independence and allows them to be the best they can be. There aren’t many jobs where you can say you do that for people. That’s what is so great about being an occupational therapist in the NHS.

“I love being out in the community and assessing patients in their own environment, giving them the support they need to live an independent and fulfilling life. The thing about community working is you never know what you will find or what you might end up doing. Most community OTs have changed light bulbs, put up curtains or put the bins out, all in the name of ‘falls prevention’ – and because we just love to help our patients!

“Many of our patients live alone and have minimal contact with others so our visit might be very important to them. Because of this, I always make sure I treat patients how I would want a family member to be treated.

“It’s a privilege to see patients in their own homes and to be let into their lives when things go wrong. The beauty of my role is there is nearly always something I can do to improve a patient’s well-being which gives me a great sense of job satisfaction. I am very proud of working for the NHS and being able to provide free care to those who need it most.”