Occupational therapy under pressure, workforce survey finds

The latest workforce survey by the Royal College of Occupational Therapists finds that the occupational therapy (OT) workforce is under pressure due to increased demand coupled with workforce shortages. It outlines OT concerns that this is challenging their capacity to provide essential support to people whose lives are impacted by long-term health conditions and disability. Among respondents, 68 per cent of respondents said that they were under too much pressure at work, 63 per cent stated they were too busy to provide the level of care they would like and 55 per cent felt that too much of their time was spent on non-OT duties. Over a third of respondents said they intend to leave their current role within the next two years, with work related stress, feeling undervalued, unable to provide the standard of service they would like and poor staffing levels cited as the most common reasons for this.

Workforce survey report 2023 – RCOT