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How occupational therapists assess adults with learning disabilities

Jo Dwyer (Occupational Therapist, Southwark Primary Care Trust)
Judith Reep (Occupational Therapist, Southwark Primary Care Trust)

Advances in Mental Health and Learning Disabilities

ISSN: 1753-0180

Article publication date: 1 December 2008

1456

Abstract

Occupational therapists are concerned with how people perform across the various daily activities that are important to them. It is recognised within occupational therapy that the presence of illness or disability might affect this performance.In order to assess how a person complete a task and identify what is making it unsatisfying, the occupational therapist will observe the person engaged in familiar activities. The Assessment of Motor and Process Skills (AMPS) provides a standardised framework within which to make these observations. We have found the AMPS to be useful in assessing the performance of people with learning disabilities generally, as well as in assessing those with additional mental illness.We recognise that occupational therapy assessment plays a useful part in a wider multi‐professional, multi‐agency approach to identifying and managing the needs of people with learning disabilities.

Keywords

Citation

Dwyer, J. and Reep, J. (2008), "How occupational therapists assess adults with learning disabilities", Advances in Mental Health and Learning Disabilities, Vol. 2 No. 4, pp. 9-14. https://doi.org/10.1108/17530180200800034

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2008, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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