Author: lgpersonaldev

It was great to attend this really informative session learning about the role of Health and Work Champions within the NHS. Working in service user engagement in Sheffield Health and Social Care NHS Foundation Trust where service user employment has been prioritised for many years, I was uncertain what there would be to learn. The answer: a lot!

Karin Bishop brilliantly highlighted the hugely important role occupational therapists have in relation to health and employment and perhaps more importantly, how well recognised this role is. Karin outlined how crucial to implementing the Green paper on Health, Work & Disability occupational therapists are. Occupational therapists are around the table with Government led discussions focussing on “Fit notes” and “Embedding Work as a Clinical Outcome”. Therefore, it’s really important for all of us to let her know real life examples of great practice in this area or where we encounter challenges, so that these can be addressed.

Onto health and work champions….well two occupational therapists described the challenges and benefits of taking on this voluntary role championing the role of work to health. The idea behind the scheme is to upskill the NHS workforce about the links between health and work and make sure all service users are asked about work and supported in their employment aspirations.  Volunteer champions train staff from their organisations to ask about work and signpost them towards appropriate vocational services, meaning that employment becomes everybody’s business and service users receive greater vocational support. The scheme is expanding and more champions are needed – could it be you? The volunteer role description is available here

It would be brilliant to see this role extended to all organisations and opened up to those with lived experience of gaining or maintaining employment despite living with health conditions. This may happen, if the scheme evaluation is positive.

Written by Laura Di Bona

Introduction

This keynote was given by Anna Dixon, Chief Executive The Centre for Ageing Better. Anna, who is Director of Strategy and Chief Strategist, started by outlining the mission and priorities of the Centre. If you are unfamiliar with their work it is well worth exploring the above link to find out more.

The key focus of the Centre is to work for a society where everyone enjoys a good later life. I loved the focus of being part of a network of ‘What Works Organisations’ with a dual focus on evidence informed practice and innovation.

During her presentation Anna explored 3 key statements they want more people to say:

• ‘I feel prepared for later life’
  • feeling confident in managing major life change
  • making plans for later life
  • having the necessary skills
• ‘I am active and connected’
  • either being in fulfilling work or making  contribution to your community
  • having regular social contact
  • keeping physically and mentally healthy
• ‘I feel in control’
  • living in suitable housing
  • having appropriate care and support.

These statements I am sure are close to the hearts of occupational therapists.

The Centre worked with Ipsos MORI to undertake research into people’s well-being in later life. An executive summary of the report can be found here. This research identified 3 key dimensions of a good later life: health, financial security and  social connections. E

In case you are wondering what we mean by health ageing you may want to explore this WHO report: World Report on Ageing and Health. 

Anna went on to explore 2 aspects of the Centre’s work

1. Keeping Physically Active (with a focus on strength and balance)

Some of the facts shared were

• From the age of 40 adults lose 8% of their muscle mass per decade
• More than 1 in 5 (21%) of all adults over the age of 85 suffer from sarcopenia.
• Every year, almost one third of older adults fall (30% of those aged 65 and over and 50% of those aged 80 and over)
• Falls and fractures in people aged 65 and over account for over 4 million hospital bed days each year in England
• The healthcare costs associated with fragility fractures is estimated at £2 billion per year.
• Once someone has fractured a bone, only 24% of people return to their previous level of movement and independence

In relation to this area the Centre is working with a range of organisations to increase awareness and uptake of strength and balance activity and the Public Health England Falls and Fracture Consensus Statement was highlighted.

The Centre is also undertaking a review of the evidence on the health benefits of strength and balance exercise, the type and extent of activity that makes the most difference, and what are the key barriers and enablers. To highlight this Anna showed a video of the role of exercise in reducing falls.

2. Suitable Housing and Neighbourhoods

Some key points

• By 2037 there are projected to be 1.42 million more households headed by someone over 85
• 80% of homeowners aged 65 and over wish to stay where they are
• People aged 85 and over spend an average of *80% of their time at home
• home adaptations gave been shown to improve the quality of 90% of recipients

In exploring this topic Anna highlighted

• the need to improve the aesthetics of assistive technologies
• the shortage of accessible homes
• the standard of ‘visitable’ in the building regs as a default as being inadequate

Anna concluded by highlighting that the Centre has commissioned the University of the West of England and the Building Research Establishment to undertake a review of the evidence into how home adaptations can contribute to a good later life.

They are commissioning research to gather evidence from practitioners who carry out assessments for home adaptations as well as people who have adapted their homes.

Finally….

For all OTs there is also a call to practice to better understand the processes through which people receive funding for home adaptations, particularly through the Disabled Facilities Grant.

The slides from this presentation have been uploaded to slideshare if you want to explore further.

Written by @lynnegoodacre

 

With just under two weeks to go until the Royal College of Occupational Therapists Annual Conference, 2017, South Yorkshire based occupational therapists gathered together to prepare for the main event. Occupational therapists from Sheffield and the surrounding areas have been making their mark on Conference for a few years and are presenting their work there in ever increasing numbers.

However, not everyone gets to go, so in 2016 Laura Evans, Head of Occupational Therapy,  Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust came up with the idea of a multipurpose practice event. Occupational therapists nervous about presenting (isn’t everyone?!) preview their draft presentations in front of colleagues, testing out their ideas before deciding on the final formats which get their first public view at conference.

This means there’s no chance to leave writing entire presentations until the night before (as if we would?!), presenters gain valuable feedback in time to make those final improvements and those who can’t get to conference get a taster of the real thing.

Since then, Sheffield Occupational Therapy Clinical Academics has been established. It is an open and friendly network of occupational therapists aiming to improve outcomes and experiences for service users of a diverse range of occupational therapy services in and around Sheffield.  This year three occupational therapists previewed their paper presentations at a meeting of SOTCA, all still in draft form as somehow none of us had quite got round to finishing them in time! Then two occupational therapists previewed their posters, one of which was still at the printers!

Our Presenters for COT2017:

• Becky Field  (@beckyfieldsheff) “Identifying influences on take up of a community occupational therapy intervention for people with dementia and family carers”
• Helen Brown (@HelenBrown09) “Short Stay Project: critical evaluation of service user perspectives”
• Laura Di Bona (@SheffOTCA) “Occupational therapists’ research engagement: enablers and challenges”
• Nat Jones (@natlouj) “Collaboration Aiming to build OT research and improve patient care.”
• Amber Wild “Embedding the Use of Smart Tablet Technology in Discharge Planning”

The presenters found it invaluable to see how their timings and slides worked (or didn’t!), to practice answering those unpredicted questions and most importantly to build their confidence by realising they know their topic well and aren’t going to forget what to say (well not the important bits, anyway!). The audience kindly completed feedback forms, reassuring presenters about the bits that had gone well and giving clear direction about how to improve their slides, content and delivery. Practicing in front of friends increased the confidence of all the presenters and they went away knowing exactly which bits to tweak before they get to conference to present the final versions.  Hopefully having practiced and received feedback they will now all present more confidently, maybe even with a smile!

It was also great for us all to meet and exchange phone numbers, so now no-one feels they are going to conference alone.

For the audience, it was an opportunity to learn about research going on locally, develop connections across organisations and realise that maybe presenting at RCOT Conference wouldn’t be so scary after all.

By Laura Di Bona

With just over a week to go to the start of COT2017 it feels like a great time to let you know about an exciting new venture for this years conference.  Several months ago a call was put out via RCOT networks, OTNews, #OTalk and various other networks for people interested in being part of a blog squad for the conference. We now have a brilliant group of pioneers signed up and raring to go.

For those of you unfamiliar with a blog squad the idea behind it is to provide an insider perspective of the conference experience and that is what we are hoping to do. Over the last few weeks members of the squad have been volunteering to write posts about specific sessions they are attending and different aspects of their conference experience. The aim is not to cover every single session, as that is impossible to do, but to give an insight into the things that have caught our attention.

So here’s the squad:

Between us we bring a fabulous mix of perspectives to what we will write about. The areas we work in comprise independent practice, NHS and academia.  We have a wide variety of areas of interest and are at different stages of our careers. For some of us it is our first ever experience of being at conference, whilst others are reaching the dizzying heights of delivering the Casson Memorial Lecture.

The one thing that unites us all however is that we are adventurers. We are stepping into new territory and we don’t know exactly this will turn out.

We are all excited by the opportunity to explore how blogging can add to the conference experience not only for those who are there but also for those who are unable to make it. Over the coming days there will be occasional blogs posted here and then we will start posting live from the first day at conference. So we hope you will keep an eye out for the posts as they go live and embark upon this new adventure with us.

By Lynne Goodacre