SERVICES WE OFFER
farm sessions - community visits - non clinical occupational therapy assessments
Farm sessions - Sessions are usually between 1 - 3 hours long and involve various farm and animal based activities to enable you or a group to reach their goals. See our Farm sessions tab for more detail!
Community Sessions - Community sessions are between 1 - 3 hours long and will involve various dog based activities to enable individuals or groups to reach their goals. See our community session tab for more detail!
Non clinical occupational therapy assessment - The farm is a unique setting to provide assessment. We offer a functional assessment, to identify possible causes of difficulty. See our assessment tab for more details.
Through occupational therapy we help people to overcome barriers to daily living with the help of our animals. Occupational therapy is a person-centred health profession which promotes health and wellbeing through the use of meaningful and purposeful activities.
Whether you are referring yourself, someone you care for, are another service supporting people or are an educational setting looking for support for your students, we can tailor sessions to help you achieve your goals.
All our Occupational Therapists are registered with the Royal College of Occupational Therapists and Health and Care Professions Council.
We’ve helped hundreds of people to achieve their goals
What is Occupational Therapy?
“It’s not what’s the matter with you, it’s what matters to you!”
Occupational therapists seem to pop-up everywhere, including hospitals, social services, schools, mental health services and even farms! So what is occupational therapy and why do OTs work in so many different places?
The word ‘occupation’ has a different meaning in OT than normal life. When OTs use it, they mean anything you do that is important to you. So occupational therapy can be better described as “doing therapy” or “therapy through doing”.
But as well as this, OTs also look at how your life situation impacts what you do. So, whilst doctors may help you heal and teachers may help you learn, OTs will look at how your health, neurodiversity or environment affect what you want to do, and help you find ways to do it.
So, OT can be described as “doing things that help people” and “helping people do things”.
Another way it’s been described is: “it’s not what’s the matter with you, it’s what matters to you!”
Dedham Therapy Farm is an exceptional and unique setting for OT because it provides endless opportunities for doing therapeutic activities, which in turn helps people do the things they want when they leave the farm.
WHO CAN OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY HELP?
Anyone who has a barrier to their daily living. We currently support mental health, learning disabilities, autism, anxiety and phobias. You can self refer or refer on behalf of a family member, or be referred by social services, school teachers or senco, support worker, carer, Occupational Therapist, GP, any health professionals.
WHAT MIGHT BE INVOLVED?
We personalise every plan for the specific needs of the person. Whether it's help with communication, social cues, sensory skills, self-confidence, stress relief, empathy, teamwork or you just want to learn a new skill, we have the expertise to help you. Some of the tasks involved may include:
Feeding the animals
Farm Repairs
Animal husbandry tasks
Dog walking & training
Gardening
Grooming & training the animals
HOW TO ACCESS OUR SERVICES
1.
Complete a referral form and return it to us.
2.
Free 15 minute telephone consultation
3.
You will have an initial assessment to access farm or community sessions. Or you can choose a non clinical occupational therapy assessment.
4.
You will receive a session offer, then get started!
FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM
#dedhamtherapyfarm