Introduction to Primary Health Care

(This page is currently under development)

The New Zealand Association of Occupational Therapists (NZAOT) believes occupational therapy has a significant role to play and a legitimate set of functions within primary health.  The exact nature of these will vary, as they do within secondary or tertiary health, related to the target population, the individuals who are receiving the services, the techniques and approaches used by the occupational therapists providing the services, and the interests, focus and expertise of those occupational therapists. 

However there are two key aspects of developing new roles and functions for occupational therapists in primary health that the NZAOT sees itself particularly supporting:

• addressing issues of people not seeing a role for occupational therapists in primary health care, and
• the employment model of primary health care being different from that in secondary and tertiary health care and education. 

The NZAOT is developing these web pages to help address these two key aspects.