This week is Occupational Therapy Week – meet Siamah Syed

November 6, 2023

Occupational therapy is one of the allied health professions that helps people of all ages who have physical, sensory, or cognitive problems. Occupational Therapy Week aims to increase awareness of and celebrate the essential service occupational therapists provide in helping patients regain independence in all areas of their lives. This year’s Occupational Therapy Week is celebrated between 6 – 12 November.

Meet Siamah Syed:

“My name is Siamah Syed and I am a new Band 5 occupational therapist with the trust. I have been working within community in Integrated Care Services which is an amazing service comprising of a multi disciplinary team of physiotherapist, occupational therapist, speech and language therapist, community nurses, district nurses, case manager to name a few.

As occupational therapists we work with patients to see what goals are important and what occupations patients would like to work towards. An example of occupation as a mean to treatment looks at activity of daily living, kitchen task like making a cup of tea; using task analysis an occupational therapist can observe and assess where the patient is facing a barrier to engaging with completing the task at hand and support them using a variety of strategies like functional, compensatory, restorative to name a few. An example of this could be a patient post stroke with left side weakness who finds the act of pouring the cup of team into their cup, a occupational therapist could suggest use of the other arm that is able to support patient to complete task or use a one touch kettle to compensate and make the task easier. All these decisions require professional and clinical reasoning.”

To celebrate Occupational Therapy Week, we will be hosting a special Occupational Therapy Week drop in event on Tuesday 7 November at Sandwell Education Centre from 10am – 3pm for all colleagues to attend.

For more information please email   jannine.hall@nhs.net.