Author: lgpersonaldev

STARTwork is a programme with an aim for people to return to work following a period of mental ill health.  As an Occupational Therapist who has worked in young people’s mental health services and early intervention psychosis services, this session appealed to me greatly.  I then found out that there was the added bonus of papercraft – I do origami outside of work so felt keen to be involved!

The session soon filled and proved to be very popular with people being turned away or observing from the outskirts.

In groups of 6 a paper flower was constructed in 5 stages of bloom and an opening title scene was created.

People expressed concern over their own ability but the groups supported each other and had to communicate so they got the colours of the flower in the same order for each stage. Rachel commented that this was the same pattern that happened in the groups she ran with service users.

Following this Rachel demonstrated how to use the stop-motion phone app to create a short stop-motion film of the flower blooming. Levels of concentration were high in order to line up the various flower stages up correctly, accounting for distance and height to each person. There was a great deal of laughter and commentary throughout the process.

After creating the stop-motion films, which were short and impressive, Rachel opened up the following question to the group:

• What are the benefits of this task to aiding work?
  • Answers included: team work, increasing confidence and self-esteem, concentration and focus, communication and coordination as well as group work.

We discussed the use of this type of intervention within our own practices – it was cheap to do with quick results or the potential to turn into a longer project as Rachel had done with her service users. Other suggestions included using it within learning disabilities services, with people with ADHD and for aiding emotional intelligence in a variety of patient groups.

The group lingered following the session, keen to discuss more about including this in their practice.  It seemed such a simple, effective and cheap way of incorporating technology into achieving a variety of occupation that are meaningful.

The stop motions that we created in this session will be available to view on Twitter: @startinsalford

Apps for stop motion animation:

iPhone: iMotion (free), Stop Motion Studio (free) StopMotion (free)

Android: StopMotion Maker (free), Claymation (£1.99), Stop-Motion (£1.25)

Rachel Jones (Start in Salford) @startinsalford @dobedobedo14

Blog post by Catherine Gray (@CGray_OT)

Day one of #COT2017, from start to finish, has been full of networking opportunities. This can be a daunting challenge and an exciting opportunity for any delegate. As a student just beginning my studies this year, I have already experienced ‘imposter’ syndrome at conference, meaning feelings of inadequacy creep in when I think of a question or thinking if I engage in conversation, they’ll know I’m a fraud. We don’t want these feelings to hold us back in day two so here are some tips to get networking at conference:

1. Be brave

Following the student networking session yesterday, I took away the message that we need to continue to silence self-doubt as it creeps back and speak up more. Many commented that often the students had asked the question everyone was thinking in sessions and had more up to date knowledge in occupational therapy theory. Go for it!

2. Prepare your ‘get out of jail’ question

Many hold back from starting that conversation at conference due to the fear that the ‘banter’ might not flow freely or even worse, it could dry up into an awkward silence. My advice would be to have the same prepared question to come to your rescue in this situation, I call it my ‘get out of jail’ question. Having something to fall back on gives me reassurance to practice point number one. At the moment, I am asking: ‘What advice would you give to students?’

3. Networking with students is still networking

Don’t beat yourself up if you didn’t get to give your ‘elevator pitch’ to Jennifer Creek. It is just as useful to network with other students. Share what you learnt or how you have found placement and be surprised at how much you’ll learn from each other. It’s cheesy but we are the Occupational Therapists of tomorrow and, well, next year!

4. Get interactive

Look out for the interactive sessions that give you an excuse to start conversations and network. I attended the lunchtime session yesterday that gave delegates the opportunity to chat to some of the key note speakers of the conference. Don’t miss out! I learnt just from being at the table and hearing what others had to say while contributing bits and pieces as much as I could.

5. Finally, follow up! 

Every session I have attended, the speaker has shared either their email or twitter handle. Plan over the next week to ask the questions you thought of afterwards, continue the conversations started, and as we were reminded of in the opening plenary, don’t forget to encourage speakers in their work and share how they have helped you, it can make someone’s day.

These are some personal tips that have worked for me. What have I missed? I’d love to hear your conference networking experience. Did you come to the conference with business cards ready to hand out or are you struggling to speak up? Let me know in the comments below or on twitter, using the handles @orlatheot and @otalk.

I’ll leave you with my new mantra I’ve been trying to live by:

‘Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection.’

By Orla Hughes (@orlatheot)

The popularity and interest in this session was immediately apparent, arriving almost 30 minutes early there were already quite a few people in the room. Quickly a workshop that originally planned for 25 attendees was bumped up to 40 and in the end almost 100 people attended.

The session aimed to demonstrate how the introduction of case formulations had benefitted an occupational therapy service based in a Scottish prison. The session highlight the many barriers faced by professionals working in both prison and forensic settings. In particular the difficulty of setting goals and providing opportunities in a service that is focused on ‘control, security and containment’.

The introduction and exploration of the process of case formulation and the theory behind it was extremely beneficial. Occupational identity and occupational competence were explained in the context of case formulation. Although many of us will be aware of MOHO we are often used to associating it with concepts such as ‘volition, habituation etc.’ Exploring the use of MOHO through the use of occupational identity and competence provided a new perspective that will be beneficial to my practice.

One of the benefits of case formulation is that unlike many other assessments that may create a score or fit an individual into a box, case formulation allows the therapist to create a narrative about the individual. This not only makes it easy for non-occupational therapy staff to read but it also makes it accessible for the client/service user themselves.

Although it would be hard to outline everything I learnt from this session I’ve comprised a number of ‘top tips’ that might be helpful for anyone interested in case formulation:

1. The introduction should be ‘quick’ and easy to read. It should provide information regarding; name, age gender, brief history of health conditions, forensic/offending history, reason for referral and occupational assessment completed.
2. Using references for assessments demonstrates that you know what you are talking about and adds authority
3. Use man/woman not male/female
4. It’s ok to use the term ‘feel’ e.g. Joe Bloggs feels that they struggle with attention and concentration
5. Break up the sections as it helps to identify themes
6. Make sure that you know how an individual feels about the themes and don’t make assumptions.
7. Keep occupational identity and occupational competence separate – whilst it’s easy when writing to switch between the two it makes it harder to follow.
8. Use everyday language
9. Make sure to include the positives
10. Have a maximum of 4 issues to be addressed – it is much better to have larger areas that need addressing that to have a lot of issues as it reduces the chances that you ‘won’t get round to it’
11. A summary statement that should consist of 3 lines – this is your brief commentary on what going on with your client.

My final thought for this session was in regards to something said by Sue Parkinson said during the session; that it can be difficult for those of us who work in mental health to identify how long it will take a client/service user to be able to do something. And that just because someone has not done something for many years does not mean that they can’t do it. In addition she highlighted that we must remember and that I’ll end this entry with: that

“many people can do wonderful things but sometimes that environment doesn’t support them”.

By Ailsa Mulligan (@Ailsa_Claire)

Spirituality: the hole in holism?

‘I just thought you did rails and commodes’ said a nurse to an Occupational Therapist participating in Jones’s study ‘Spirituality embedded into acute adult practice.’

Another participant stated that observing spirituality in their practice would be ‘trying to find a needle in a haystack.’ Jones challenged that omitting spirituality creates a hole in our holistic practice, often caused by lack of a clear definition and increased pressures in acute settings.

Spirituality, once a term reserved for religious faiths, is now broadened to include bringing hope, meaning, and purpose to patients. As Occupational Therapists, we aim to treat them as unique spiritual beings, looking at their meaning and purpose, while addressing their well-being, suffering, and quality of life through occupation.

Through observing and interviewing two Occupational Therapists, spirituality was found in acute care through:

• Valuing the individual

Spirituality was observed in how the participants carried out person-centred care, their communication with patients by delivering information with sensitivity, keeping the individual in the decision-making process, and considering the occupations that are meaningful to each client.

• Supporting patients to maintain health and well-being

This is achieved through continual exploration of where clients find hope, for example, Jones mentioned a service user not engaging in therapy until knitting was suggested.

• Recognising spirituality as a dimension of holistic practice

Spirituality as part of our holistic practice meant conversations facilitated hope and open ended narrative assessments teased out patients’ values.

• Personal and Professional influences: core values – essence of being an OT.

To the participants’ reassurance and to today audience’s relief spiritually is found in acute care due to the essence of our profession, helping people find meaningful activity in their lives, taking into account their beliefs and values.

As a student just finished my first placement, I found this useful to not over-complicate using spirituality in practice. We can continue to seek what is meaningful in each client’s life.

Janice Jones London Southbank University (Twitter handle: @JaniceJ6873404)

Blog Squad writer: Orla Hughes (Twitter handle: @orlatheot)

In my former life I worked in Arts Press, so it was natural for me to want to attend this session and start to think about how I could use my skills from my first career to better support my new adventure as an Occupational Therapist.

The session began with an introduction from RCOT’s Head of Media Relations, Andrew Sharratt. He talked about what the RCOT have been doing over the past year since last year’s conference message to “be loud and proud”, and the current drive to increase the number of people telling the story of the profession.

Getting involved in coverage of everything from Brexit to winter pressures, the RCOT media team have certainly been busy. There was mention of an upcoming campaign, ‘Living, Not Existing’, which will talk about Social Care and Occupational Therapy and come complete with a toolkit to help Occupational Therapists tell their story to the press. This follows the ongoing work the Improving Lives, Saving Money campaign has been doing since it was launched in 2015. Andrew’s introduction ended with an important point; media relations is not just PR and spin doctoring, it’s a way to help commissioners and service leaders understand what Occupational Therapists are about and promote the important work we do every day.

Next to speak was Madeleine Pinkham, Media Relations Officer for NHS Improvement. Madeleine started by asking how many people knew their Communications Team – a question that made me consider my own lack of engagement at the Trust I work for – and outlined the role of a press officer. Their role includes managing the public’s expectations, sharing the work that we do with patients and the wider community, and a whole host of things such as events, web presence and more. What I took most from Madeleine’s section was the need for Occupational Therapists employed in health and social care to engage with their communications team. If we want to get the word out there about Occupational Therapy we need to tell them because, in Madeleine’s words, “without the work you do, an NHS press officer has nothing to talk about”. She urged us all to invite our communications teams to come and see what we do in frontline services, even suggesting we “spam them” at every given opportunity.

Madeleine also made reference to the new series of BBC2’s Hospital, due to start on Tuesday 20^th June 2017. She acknowledged that they had “missed a trick” with the first series, which did not capture enough of the work done by therapies staff. Apparently this has been addressed in series two so I look forward to seeing the results, especially as figures quoted state that the first series had 2.5 million viewers per episode so the potential for more people across the UK to see what Occupational Therapy has to offer is huge.

Finally came David Brindle, Public Services Editor for The Guardian who started by saying that blogging and vlogging were the new face of journalism and that it was online that most young people are now consuming their media. The overarching message here was that although online media is a growing area, print media does still seem to have a more esteemed position in the mass mindset so should not be neglected. He called for frontline staff to consider interaction with the media because it is “the voice of the professional and voice of the service user that bring a piece to life”. Communications teams can help manage these interactions, and advise on the most appropriate media outlets to take a story to.

Given that it was acknowledged that online media is on the rise, and traditional media in steep decline it did feel strange to not have anyone there to discuss engagement with the ‘new media’ world. However, in questions Andrew did say they had decided this was a subject in its own right, so I hope to see this addressed at future conferences.

This session followed on beautifully from the central message of the Casson Memorial Lecture, to ‘Publish! Publish! Publish!’, and reaffirmed my belief that this should not just mean publishing research. As Occupational Therapists we need to consider how we engage the public and people in positions of power to ensure they understand what we do and how it can help drive ongoing improvement in health and social care. A fitting to end to an inspiring day!

By Ayla Greenwood, @AylaOT