Are referrals to occupational therapy for XXXX appropriate?

@entity1 @entity1957 @entity5259
AIMS: To assess @entity1 referred to the Occupational Therapy Service in Gwent with a presumptive diagnosis of @entity1957 ( @entity1957 ) in order to investigate the appropriateness of their referral. METHODS: Non-urgent referrals to the occupational therapy team for @entity1 with coordination difficulties in Gwent between June 2001 and February 2002 were studied. RESULTS: Eighty nine @entity1 , aged 5-10 years, were identified. Thirteen @entity1 who would not meet the @entity1957 criteria were excluded. This left 76 @entity1 , 67 of whom were actually assessed. If the 15th centile for the Movement ABC is used, 26 @entity1 met and 41 failed one of the four criteria in DSM IV (38%). If the 5th centile is used, 21 @entity1 met and 46 failed one of the four criteria in the @entity5259 %). Of the major groups of referrers, school nurses did the best with 48% success rate; better than the paediatricians with 32%. The worst success rate was in educational psychologists and teachers, with only 20% of cases referred actually having @entity1957 . These differences did not quite reach statistical significance. CONCLUSIONS: Less than a third of referrals to occupational therapy for @entity1957 actually have the diagnosis. This suggests that referrers need further training and guidance. This includes a knowledge and understanding of the DSM IV criteria and their interpretation. This would reduce the number of time consuming, unnecessary assessments being done. A triage procedure with a checklist would be a good way forward and we hope to devise one to assist referrers with this process.
