Fife Council’s Occupational Therapy Service is to undergo a review due to a 23% increase in demand for the service in the last year. In 2001- 2002 it received 9847 referrals, 74% of which were for people aged over 65 years.

Cllr Irene Connelly (see picture on left), strategic spokesperson for care in the community said: “Staff have been working very hard to cope with the increase in referrals but there is no doubt that this has had a knock-on effect on waiting-times for assessment and service delivery.

“This increase shows that a review of the service is needed and the Adult Services Committee has endorsed this course of action. The review has already started and will take six months to complete. The findings will come back to the Adult Services Committee for discussion and a decision on what changes are needed to cope with the increase in demand.”

The review is looking at service performance, budget allocation, service criteria for assessment and provision in line with available resources, staffing levels, development of senior practitioners to reduce the pressure on occupational therapy teams and team leaders and the charging policy for the provision of equipment and adaptations.

The service has had Ł647,000 allocated to it from the Community Care budget and the Children’s Challenge Fund funding to help the Service to improve delivery times for children and adults. 497 service users who have previously been assessed but are still on a waiting list for the provision of adaptations will benefit as a result of this allocation.

Cllr Connelly concluded: “There are now much greater opportunities for people to be maintained at home and that requires the supply of equipment, adaptations and rehabilitation. Occupational therapy makes a significant contribution to this by supporting people with complex needs to remain at home within their own communities and reducing the need for long term care, preventing hospital admission in the first place and reducing delayed discharge.

”Fife Council has already made great progress in making best use of the resources available. For example by introducing joint working with the NHS on assessment and storage of equipment, a fast track referral system for low priority clients and the development of barrier free housing and improvements to the allocation and reallocation of properties to people with a disability.”