RCOT publishes two short guides about occupational therapy and Long Covid

The Royal College of Occupational Therapists (RCOT) has published two new and insightful quick guides about occupational therapy and Long Covid.

The guides outline the unique role of occupational therapists (OTs) in supporting adults, children and young people to manage and recover from Long Covid. They have been developed in collaboration with OTs supporting people with Long Covid across a range of settings, as well as with OTs with lived experience of Long Covid, and members of Long Covid peer support groups.

OTs can use these guides to inform their practice when working with adults, children and young people with Long Covid. This includes OTs working in specialist Long Covid services, as well as in other acute, primary, secondary and community services.

Service managers and commissioners responsible for planning and delivering specialist Long Covid services can also use these guides to inform the business case for occupational therapy as part of multi-disciplinary teams addressing Long Covid.

RCOT’s first guide – ‘A quick guide for occupational therapists: Occupational therapy and children and young people with Long Covid (Post COVID-19 syndrome/Condition)’ – notes that approaches to treating children and young people with Long Covid should be personalised to address the needs, preferences, values and culture of each child or young person.

The second guide – ‘A quick guide for occupational therapists: Occupational therapy and adults with Long Covid (Post COVID-19 Syndrome/Condition)’ – highlights that OTs are essential in enabling adults affected by Long Covid to manage and recover from the physical, cognitive, psychological and social impacts of the condition.

Both guides can be downloaded from RCOT’s Long Covid resource page here 

In NHS England’s recent document outlining its 10 priorities for 2022/23, it mentioned that there are currently variations in waiting times, access to clinics and referrals rates to dedicated Long Covid clinics. One of its priorities for 2022/23 is to decrease the number of patients waiting longer than 15 weeks to be seen at a specialist Long Covid clinic to enable their timely placement on the appropriate management or rehabilitation pathway.

OTs play a crucial role in managing patients with Long Covid, which, in turn, could ease the pressure off NHS England to deal with this increase in demand.