Online Occupational Therapy Services
In addition to delivering services in the clinic, at the client’s school or home, Ace Children’s Occupational Therapy also delivers services online.
During the Covid-19 Lockdown period, we delivered a significant number of EHCP and Tribunal assessments, where observation evidence obtained online was admissible in court.
Video evidence is primarily gathered using Zoom or Teams as it does not require the client to have a licence and is easy to initiate a call.
The format of assessments changes such that interviews with the school or college and parents or carers are often conducted on a day prior to the assessment.
For the assessment, the core sessions are planned in much the same way as assessments in person. However, they require a lot of planning and are generally split into 3 or even 4 x 30-minute sessions during the course of the day. One of the key differences with online assessments is the reduced ability to deliver what are known as ‘standardised assessments’, hence other techniques are used instead which are also considered as valid evidence. OTs are trained in observation of human functioning.
During treatment sessions, which are also generally split into 30-minute slots, various pre-recorded material may be used and also shared with the parent or caregiver to continue supporting their child outside of the online treatment session.
Programmes with SMART goals and Reviews are completed in the same way as treatment sessions delivered in person.