West Sussex County Council: Better connected with OT Connect

Date: Oct 18, 2007

Press Release Number: PR1776

West Sussex residents who find everyday tasks difficult can now use the County Council’s OT Connect service to help solve their problems quickly.

OT Connect – Occupational Therapy Connect - is a one-stop shop for advice and information for residents on how to manage and who face daily difficulties such as getting out of bed or using the bathroom on their own.

OT Connect is a fast-growing service – at present it receives around 400 queries from people every week.

The service has been celebrating six months of successful operation. West Sussex County Council Cabinet Member for Adults’ Services Pat Arculus said: “People have told us they want to speak to someone who understands what they are talking about and who can answer their question there and then – OT Connect provides this service.”

Experienced members of the team, including six OT assistants and a qualified occupational therapist, ask callers a number of questions so they can be assessed and helped efficiently. Around half are offered advice or useful information so that they can deal with their problem themselves.

Depending on the assessment, other callers have equipment such as chair raisers and grab rails ordered for them by the team, which usually arrive a week later.

Arrangements can also be made for a member of the Occupational Therapy team to visit them at home.

Pat added: “Before OT Connect, people who called the service had to go through a number of steps to get to speak to someone qualified to answer their questions. OT Connect changes all that and is a change for the better for our residents.”

To contact OT Connect call 01903 839100 and ask for OT Connect, or email ot.connect@westsussex.gov.uk for more information.