Purpose
The opening paragraph names the referral, community occupational therapy follow-up after a fall, and why it matters: further adaptations so she can stay safely at home. The detailed requests follow later, where they make sense.
OET Occupational Therapy Writing
OET Writing Sample for Occupational Therapists: Referral Letter
This OET writing sample for occupational therapists gives you a complete practice task: hospital occupational therapy notes after a fall, including a home assessment, the writing instructions, a model referral to the community occupational therapy team and a criterion-by-criterion explanation of why it works. Write your own letter first, then compare.
45 min5 minutes reading plus 40 minutes writing
180–200Words in the body of the letter
6Writing criteria the examiner uses
What is the OET Writing task for occupational therapists?
OET Writing gives you 5 minutes to read the case notes and 40 minutes to write one letter, with a body of about 180–200 words. For occupational therapists, the letter is often a referral or handover to a community team, explaining the patient's function, what has been provided and what still needs to happen at home. This page gives you a full practice task, a model answer and an explanation of every selection decision.
Reading time: 5 minutes
You read the case notes and the task before the writing time starts. Use it to decide who the reader is and what they must do next.
Writing time: 40 minutes
You write one letter. A useful split is 5 minutes planning, 30 minutes writing and 5 minutes checking purpose, dates and doses.
How to use this sample
Read the case notes, write your own letter under time and only then compare it with the model answer. Copying the model teaches far less than finding your own selection mistakes.
What the examiner checks
Six criteria: Purpose, Content, Conciseness & Clarity, Genre & Style, Organisation & Layout, and Language.
Case notes: home assessment for Mrs Edna Fowler
These case notes describe a fictional patient and were written for practice. Read them for five minutes and decide what the community team needs before you look at the task.
Patient details
- Name: Mrs Edna Fowler
- DOB: 03/09/1945 (81 y.o.)
- Address: 6 Beech Road, Kingsford
- Admitted after fall at home: 14/10/2026; discharge: 21/10/2026
- Elderly Care Ward, Kingsford Hospital
Social background
- Widowed; lives alone in two-storey house; only bathroom upstairs
- Daughter lives nearby and visits daily
- Retired librarian; enjoys reading and baking
- Previously independent; walked to local shops
Medical history
- Osteoarthritis both knees
- Hypertension (on medication)
- Cataracts (surgery 2021)
- Fall 14/10: tripped on hallway rug; bruising L hip; X-ray: no fracture
Occupational therapy notes
- Mobilising independently with walking stick on the ward
- Stairs: unsteady; managed safely with one rail and supervision
- Home assessment 20/10: loose rugs removed (with pt's agreement)
- Equipment provided: raised toilet seat, perching stool, bath board
- Recommended second stair rail (not yet fitted)
- Pt would prefer level-access shower in future
- Pt anxious about falling again but keen to stay at home
Plan
- Refer to community occupational therapy team: second stair rail, review of bathing
- Pendant alarm requested
- Physiotherapy outpatient follow-up booked (balance)
Writing task
You are the occupational therapist on the Elderly Care Ward, Kingsford Hospital. Mrs Fowler is being discharged today. Using the information in the case notes, write a letter of referral to the Community Occupational Therapy Team, Kingsford Community Health Services, 40 Park Avenue, Kingsford.
- Expand the relevant notes into complete sentences.
- Do not use note form.
- Use letter format.
- The body of the letter should be approximately 180–200 words.
Practice material written by OET with Dr Hesham. It is not an official OET test task.
Model answer: occupational therapy referral to the community team
Compare this model with your own letter. There is more than one way to score highly, but strong answers make the same selection decisions.
Community Occupational Therapy Team
Kingsford Community Health Services
40 Park Avenue
Kingsford
21 October 2026
Dear Colleagues,
Re: Mrs Edna Fowler, DOB 03/09/1945
I am writing to refer Mrs Fowler, aged 81, for community occupational therapy follow-up after a fall at home. She is being discharged today and needs further home adaptations to remain safely independent.
On 14 October, Mrs Fowler tripped on a rug in her hallway and bruised her left hip, but an X-ray showed no fracture. She now mobilises independently with a walking stick but is unsteady on the stairs. She lives alone in a two-storey house, and her only bathroom is upstairs.
During a home assessment on 20 October, the loose rugs were removed with her agreement, and she was given a raised toilet seat, a perching stool and a bath board. She managed the stairs safely with one rail and supervision.
I would be grateful if you could arrange the fitting of a second stair rail, which I have recommended, and review her bathing, as she would prefer a level-access shower in future. A pendant alarm has been requested.
Mrs Fowler is anxious about falling again but is keen to stay at home. Her daughter lives nearby and visits daily. Please contact me if you require further information.
Yours faithfully,
Occupational Therapist
Elderly Care Ward, Kingsford Hospital
Practice material written by OET with Dr Hesham. It is not an official OET test task. The body of this model answer is 190 words.
Why this letter works
The model is mapped to the six criteria examiners use. According to OET, a Grade B letter typically scores 2 out of 3 for Purpose and 5 out of 7 for each of the other criteria. Selection is the skill behind most of them, so the lists below show which case notes were kept and which were left out.
Content
The letter keeps the fall and its outcome, her current mobility, the stair and bathroom problem, everything already done at the home visit, the two outstanding needs and her support. Hobbies, old surgery and her former job are left out.
Conciseness & Clarity
The home assessment becomes two sentences: what was removed and provided, then how she managed the stairs. The reader can see at a glance what is done and what is still needed.
Genre & Style
The tone is professional, therapist to therapist. Because the letter goes to a team rather than a named person, it opens with “Dear Colleagues” and closes with “Yours faithfully”.
Organisation & Layout
Purpose first, then the fall and current function, then the home assessment, then the requests, then her concerns and support. Standard letter layout with the recipient, date and Re: line.
Language
Accurate tenses (past for the fall and the visit, present for her current function), passive voice for actions completed by staff, and no note-form abbreviations such as pt or L.
Included because the reader needs it
- Reason for referral: community follow-up after a fall
- Fall, bruised hip and no fracture
- Walking stick, unsteady on stairs
- Lives alone; only bathroom upstairs
- Rugs removed and equipment provided
- Second stair rail recommended but not yet fitted
- Bathing review and preference for a level-access shower
- Pendant alarm, anxiety about falling and daughter's support
Left out because it does not change the next step
- Retired librarian, reading and baking
- Cataract surgery in 2021
- Osteoarthritis and hypertension (not affecting this referral)
- Walking to the shops before the fall
- Physiotherapy outpatient follow-up (another team's plan)
- Length of her hospital stay
Common mistakes in OET occupational therapy letters
These errors cost marks in occupational therapy letters again and again, and each one is easy to fix once you can see it.
- Listing equipment without saying what still needs to be done at home.
- Burying the main requests, the second stair rail and the bathing review, in the middle of the history.
- Describing the whole medical history instead of the function that affects safety at home.
- Forgetting that the only bathroom is upstairs, which explains why the stairs matter.
- Using “Dear Sir or Madam” or a personal name when writing to a team.
- Using note-form abbreviations such as pt, L and OT in the letter.
- Leaving out her support at home and her wish to stay independent.
For the method behind these decisions, read the OET Writing tips or see OET for allied health professionals. Try the other practice letters too: the nursing discharge letter, the nursing referral letter, the nursing transfer letter, the medicine referral letter, the medicine discharge letter, the pharmacy letter to a GP, the physiotherapy discharge letter and the occupational therapy referral letter. All of them are listed on the free OET sample tests page.
Write your own version and get it marked
Write your own occupational therapy letter for this task in 40 minutes, then send it for OET writing correction. Each corrected letter comes back with an estimated score, detailed correction and voice-note feedback on WhatsApp. If you are not sure your English is ready for OET yet, start with the free placement test.
OET occupational therapy writing sample FAQ
More exam questions are answered on the full OET FAQ page.
How long should an OET occupational therapy letter be?
The body of the letter should be about 180–200 words. Writing a little more or less is not penalised on its own, but long letters usually include irrelevant case notes, which costs marks for content and conciseness.
Who do occupational therapists write to in OET Writing?
Often a community occupational therapy team, a GP or another service that will continue the patient's care at home. The reader decides what to include, so focus on function, safety and what still needs to happen.
How do I start and end a letter to a team rather than a person?
Use “Dear Colleagues” or a similar greeting when no individual is named, and close with “Yours faithfully”. When you write to a named person, use their name and close with “Yours sincerely”.
Can I get my OET occupational therapy letter marked?
Yes. Write your own version of this task under timed conditions, then send it for OET writing correction. You receive an estimated score, detailed correction and voice-note feedback on WhatsApp.
Next step
Find out what your occupational therapy letter would score
Write this task under time, send it for correction and get an estimated score with voice-note feedback on exactly what to change.