Occupational Therapist

You restore people's ability to live independently and participate fully in daily life.

What this life looks like

Occupation – in occupational therapy – means everything a person does in their daily life: working, eating, dressing, playing, maintaining their home, caring for children, and participating in their community. As an Occupational Therapist you help people who have been prevented from doing these things by illness, injury, disability, or mental health conditions to regain that ability. You might work with stroke survivors to regain the function needed to cook a meal, with children with developmental disabilities to develop the skills needed to participate in school, with people recovering from hand injuries to regain the dexterity needed for their work, or with people with mental health conditions to rebuild their daily routine and social participation. Occupational therapy is a holistic profession – you treat the whole person in the context of their life, not just their diagnosis. In Africa it is one of the most under-represented health professions, which means that people with disabilities and long-term conditions are not getting the support they need to live fully and independently.

What she actually does

An Occupational Therapist assesses a person's ability to perform daily activities, identifies the barriers preventing full participation, designs and implements therapeutic programmes to restore or develop needed skills, adapts environments and recommends assistive devices, works with children to develop sensory processing, fine motor, and cognitive skills, supports people with mental health conditions in building daily structure and social skills, and collaborates with families and caregivers.

Where you can work

Sector	Places in Africa
Hospital rehabilitation departments	Netcare Rehabilitation Hospital (South Africa), Kenyatta National Hospital (Kenya), Lagos University Teaching Hospital (Nigeria)
Paediatric therapy centres	Gabriella Children's Rehabilitation Centre (Tanzania), The Red Cross War Memorial Children's Hospital (South Africa)
Mental health units and community mental health services	The Friendship Bench (Zimbabwe), Mathari National Teaching and Referral Hospital (Kenya)
Schools and special education settings	Tshilidzini Special School (South Africa), Northeastern Province School for the Deaf (Kenya)
Community disability programmes	Amref Health Africa, CHAK Community Based Rehabilitation (Kenya), StrongMind (Uganda/Zambia)
Occupational health services in corporate settings	Workwell (South Africa), Mining industry health services (Zambia/South Africa)

Why it matters in Africa

Africa has a very high prevalence of disability from conditions including road traffic injuries, stroke, cerebral palsy, HIV-related neurological complications, and mental health conditions. Yet rehabilitation services including occupational therapy are almost entirely absent across most of the continent. Children with developmental disabilities who do not receive early occupational therapy are permanently disadvantaged in education and later employment. Adults who do not receive occupational therapy after stroke remain unnecessarily dependent on family caregivers. Building occupational therapy capacity in Africa is building towards a more inclusive society.

Your pathway in

Biology, and for some programmes Physics, at secondary school. You then complete a Bachelor of Occupational Therapy degree, typically four years, at institutions including the University of Cape Town, University of KwaZulu-Natal, the University of the Witwatersrand, and a small number of other African universities with occupational therapy programmes. The profession is less widely available for training in Africa than physiotherapy, which means some students pursue training overseas. After graduating you register with your national occupational therapy council.

Skills you will need

Technical: Activity analysis, functional assessment, therapeutic activity design, assistive technology prescription, splinting and hand therapy, sensory integration therapy for children, and cognitive rehabilitation. Human: Creativity in designing therapeutic activities that are meaningful to individual patients in their specific cultural context, empathy and patience, the ability to work with families as partners in therapy, and problem-solving when resources for assistive technology are limited. Digital tools: Functional assessment tools, assistive technology databases, telerehabilitation platforms, and electronic therapy records.

A woman in this field

Prof. Elelwani Ramugondo

South Africa

The Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Transformation, Student Affairs, and Social Responsiveness at the University of Cape Town. A pioneering occupational therapist, she is globally recognized for developing the concept of "occupational consciousness," which explores how daily activities can be a tool for social transformation and decolonization. She established the first OT department at Tshilidzini Special School and has spent over 25 years championing academic excellence and integrity within the health sciences.

Take your first step

Start paying attention to how people do everyday tasks – how a person cooks, dresses, writes, walks through a space – and noticing when something makes those tasks harder or easier. Biology is most relevant at school. The World Federation of Occupational Therapists has a website with resources about occupational therapy globally and the opportunities and challenges of practising in Africa. If you have any family member or community member with a disability, observing how they navigate daily life will give you a powerful practical sense of what occupational therapy aims to restore.