About our service
The community therapy service provides occupational therapy and physiotherapy in the patient's home or a community setting.
The team is made up of occupational therapists, physiotherapists, rehabilitation technicians, rehabilitation assistants and administrative support.
We provide assessment, treatment and advice, working jointly with patients (and their carers where appropriate) to meet their established agreed goal within an identified timeframe.
Who is the service for?
The service is for adults aged 17 years and above who are registered with a Birmingham GP, are predominantly housebound patients that require physiotherapy and/or occupational therapy assessment, treatment and advice.
Reasons for referral include:
Physiotherapy
- reduced mobility
- balance problems
- reduced movement and strength
- provision of walking aids
- falls assessment and intervention
- musculoskeletal / orthopaedic disorders –
for people who are unable to access an outpatient clinic - neurological conditions
- respiratory management
- functional deterioration
- postural management/advice
Occupational therapy
- bespoke equipment assessment with a functional/rehabilitative need
- transfer assessment/practice
- domestic activities of daily living
- personal activities of daily living
- fatigue management
- cognition assessment and management strategies
- anxiety management in relation to a person’s physical diagnosis
(ie. neurological diagnosis, breathlessness, falls) - functional assessment and rehabilitation
- postural support assessments – includes sleep systems
- falls assessment and intervention
- upper limb assessment
Assessment for patients to avoid a hospital admission should be referred to the Early intervention Community Team on 0300 555 1919, option 2.
If you are considering making a referral that is for the same complaint/reason as a previous referral and it is within 3 months of discharge from the service, please contact us via the single point of access (SPA) on 0300 555 1919, option 1, to discuss further before making a new referral.
How do I access the service?
-
If you are a health or social care professional and wish to refer a patient you must complete the Physiotherapy referral form and / or Occupational Therapy referral form (if physiotherapy and occupational therapy is required, both forms must be completed)
- Self-referral: we no longer accept self referrals from patients, carers or family members. Please contact your GP or your health care professional to be referred to our service.
All referrals will be clinically triaged by a physiotherapist or occupational therapist. Where there is insufficient information provided at the point referral, the referral will be discharged and sent back to the referrer.
Signposting to other services / treatments
There are some services that we do not provide and if an assessment is required for any of the treatments / interventions listed below we have included contact details of the relevant service to support you in referral to the appropriate team.
| Reason for referral | Service contact details |
|---|---|
|
Adult social care : Packages of care |
|
| Wheelchair referrals |
|
| Blue badge referral and parking bays |
|
| Complex learning disability / sensory integration / patient already known to LD Service |
|
| White sticks / canes for people with visual impairments |
|
|
Equipment, major adaptations / structural changes to homes, for example:
|
|
|
|
| Standard equipment for nursing or residential homes |
|
| Manual handling equipment to be used by care agency staff |
|
| Immediate follow-up after orthopaedic surgery |
|
| Standard equipment - where a patient has been assessed and identified as requiring equipment by another healthcare professional, for example a district nurse, clinical case manager |
|
| Equipment repairs or replacement |
|
BCHC App Library
Browse health and wellbeing apps approved by our team of healthcare professionals.
Health and wellbeing apps can help with preventing, managing and recovering from a huge range of mental and physical health issues.
But there are hundreds of thousands of health apps out there — not all of them are safe. How do you find trusted health and wellbeing apps? We have the answer!
Birmingham Community Healthcare has a Health App Library where you can find apps which have been independently reviewed to ensure they are:
- safe
- clinically approved
- up-to-date
- high quality
- accessible and easy to use
We have collections of apps for:
- people with diabetes
- families with young children
- teenagers and young adults
- healthy eating
- muscle, bone and joint problems
Many more apps can be found on the library website by searching the whole library for key words, for example dementia, or falls. You can filter your search, so you only see apps that are free, or are for a particular age group.
Professionals who work at Birmingham Community can also send app recommendations to you via email or text message. Your health or care professional may send you a health app if they feel it would be beneficial to you.
Feedback
Send us feedback about an app you’ve used from our app library.
Watch the video below to find out more about the BCHC App Library and how to use it.