Category: #COT2017

This was a fascinating and energising session led by the team from the Elizabeth Casson Trust which obviously touched a topic close to the heart of many at conference. This was evidenced by over 150 delegates in the room.

The session was introduced by Anne Lawson Porter, a Trustee of the Trust, who outlined the work the Trust is undertaking with regard to supporting the development of leadership capability within Occupational Therapy.

Anne provided an insight into how the focus of the Trust’s work has evolved recently to include an emphasis on not only furthering occupational therapists (a focus on the individual through its individual awards) but also on ‘furthering occupational therapy’ (the profession). The Trust has recently undertaken a review of its strategy and has published 3 clear strategic intentions the second of which is as follows:

Anne went on introduce Caroline Waters who is working with the Trust on this strategic intention.  Phase one of the work involved talking with OTs from across the  profession about their leadership experiences and needs. Caroline talked for a short time on some of the challenges that were identified in this phase of the work. she also described some of the needs that were identified. These are summarised in the slide below.

The second half of the workshop was spent exploring some of the Trusts current thinking about the work it can undertake in this area. This includes

• The production of branded material about the value of OT
• Specific work focused on building capability with a focus on skills
• Providing support for the future – mentoring and coaching
• Network building to overcome personal and geographical isolation
• Creating hubs and spokes of leadership expertise

One of the challenges identified with regard to this work is how to create a model that is sustainable.

The second half of the session posed two questions central to taking this work forward into implementation:

• How could phase 3 (implementation) be delivered to meet your professional leadership needs?
• How could professional leadership be sustained over time?
  • would you be willing to invest in your professional leadership future by paying a fee?
  • what other suggestions can you propose?

Judging by the amount of discussion in the room there were lots of ideas about this. There was a long line of people at the microphone wanting to contribute their thinking which is always great to see.

This session is being written up and will be published in OTN and so if you are interested in this work and want to find out more keep an eye out for the article. It will also explain how you can become involved.  This is a really exciting piece of work relevant to every single one of us.

Written by @lynnegoodacre

The first time I’ve attended facilitated poster session, really interesting mix of posters and very proficient presenters.

First, was Claire Martin “Utilising the residential environmental impact scale (REIS) to increase patient participation in activities within a ward environment”.  Claire spoke eloquently about using the REIS to assess their ward environment that was in an old building not designed for its current purpose. Now used by people with severe and enduring mental health conditions, the ward had a very low initial score on the REIS, meaning that both the physical and human environment were not conducive to good care and wellbeing. Claire described how she worked with the whole staff team, including estates, to address the issues and then embed the REIS as a quality improvement measure, revisited on a three monthly cycle. The environment is now much improved and the team working cohesively to continue improvements.

Claire really made me wonder why we don’t use the REIS more in our practice as the environment is nowadays considered to play such a crucial role in people’s recovery from ill health. We often talk about the challenges of our inpatient environments and the need to improve them, but most of us don’t consider them in a structured or standardised way. I will be having discussions about this when I get back to Sheffield!

Second, was Jennimae Chouchelamane “Occupational therapists delivering Schwartz rounds to improve staff health and wellbeing in work”. Schwartz rounds are on the increase in the NHS and are implemented to address the variation in compassionate care received by service users. The idea being that if organisations invest in looking after their staff there will be organisational and patient benefits. Schwartz rounds involve up to four panellists sharing their story on a particular topic for five minutes to stimulate wider discussion within a staff group. The sessions focus on sharing emotions instead of problem solving. Staff say the benefits include helping them provide improved care for patients and work better with colleagues.

It is great that compassionate care is now considered important both for our staff and service users and exciting that occupational therapists have a role in this. I’d be really interested in seeing further evaluations of Schwartz rounds incorporating service user focussed outcomes.

Lastly, Sarah Carter “Does recover in mental health settings need professionals?”. Well, we have lots of discussion about this in Sheffield, so I was really looking forward to getting an answer! Sarah described recovery as the development of meaning and purpose beyond illness. She gave us a whistle stop tour through the history of the medical professions, the ownership of power and how civil rights movements have galvanised change. People with mental health conditions are amongst the most marginalised in society, many are now coming together to create societal change around mental health, often having been failed by professionals. Professionals acknowledge this and peer support is now integral to mental health care and most people who have experienced challenges to their mental health would describe peer support as beneficial to their recovery. So, is there a need for health professionals at all? Sarah’s conclusion was that recovery is the responsibility of society, but yes health professionals still have a role to play. We need to help service users build those connections with each other to develop supportive communities focussed on encouraging everyone to do, be and belong. Fascinating stuff!

Written by Laura Di Bona

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)