Category: #COT2017

With perinatal health being a particular interest of mine and having recently completed a university assignment on this, it was a perfect opportunity to attend and hear about the two papers being talked about in this session. There was a good mix as one paper focused on the experiences of disabled women in the perinatal period and the other was looking into the priorities in mental health.

Firstly, it was great to hear about Bethan Collins research into the experiences of disabled women during the antenatal and postnatal period. She highlighted the fact that disabled women tended to have significantly less positive experiences in this period and part of this study showed that the literature backed this fact up.

Bethan highlighted that the key findings of her research focused on service users satisfaction with the care they received; their choice in care; the continuity of carer and being listened to and treated as an individual. Bethan highlighted how we, as occupational therapists, could have a bigger potential role in this period.

I was particularly disappointed to learn that where occupational therapists had been involved in the antenatal period, it was largely focused on equipment giving and that there was very limited occupational therapist input in the postnatal period. This research also showed that many service users wanted more input about the actual parenting, rather than equipment. Bethan spoke about how often these women felt that people were not considering them when giving advice, and sometimes they would have liked to have been in touch with others with the same condition for reassurance and guidance.

These all seem like basic ideas, but the fact that they are not happening shows that the women need us, as a holistic profession, to advocate for their needs. We are a client-centred profession, perhaps more so than many of the others, and we can use this to our advantage in supporting women through-out pregnancy and early parenting experiences.

The second part of the session was delivered by Sarah Maris-Shaw, with a personal perspective added by service user Sarah Gosset. Their aim was to raise awareness of mental health priorities in perinatal settings, with a focus on co-occupations.

Firstly, they started out with some shocking statistics. 23% of mental health related deaths can be attributed to mental health and yet there are only 16 mother and baby units across the country, whilst 40% of people experiencing perinatal mental health would not receive any specialist care (check out Maternal mental health Everyone’s Business for more information).

The practice Sarah works in focuses on preventative work, so they can work with people with mental health concern, not necessarily a diagnosis. This seemed important to me as it is proactively working with people to prevent future poor mental health developing. The group which runs as part of this service focuses on co-occupations. For those of you who, like me, did not really know what this word means, it means that the occupation would not occur without the interaction of the other person. For example, the co-occupation of feeding a child or playing with a child. In this circumstance, both parent and child have to learn about the co-occupation. This is why it is important to explore these within the group. It was also fantastic to hear a personal perspective from Sarah about how the group had helped her and the importance of it. There really is no better feedback than direct from a service user!

Both of these sessions were exciting to be a part of and I hope it inspires more occupational therapists to really be involved in this area, particularly with Sarah Maris-Shaw highlighting the NHS five-year forward view for mental health, which specifically mentions occupational therapists in the perinatal period – what better time to get involved?

Written by Katie Gabriel – @Katie-Next

Follow them on Twitter:

Sarah Maris-Shaw – @sarahmarisshaw

Bethan Collins – @Bethanhc

Elizabeth Raby and Ela Neagu, designers from the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design , ran this workshop and gave a brief overview of the work of the Helen Hamly Centre which is part of the Royal College of Art.

The key areas of work undertaken by the Centre are related to social and global issues, healthcare and age and diversity and the focus of this workshop was on a project being undertaken in collaboration with Arthritis Research UK  Support Systems.

This project has been informed by the fact that a lot of people with arthritis are unaware of the products available to support them in undertaking ADL, finding out what exists, how it might be of help and where to get it from. The focus of the project is on the smaller items of equipment costing under £50.

Support systems is a two year project coming to completion in the autumn and during this time people with arthritis, clinicians and experts have been involved in its development as well as a number of networking sites. Over this time information has been gathered via a range of methods including workshops, interviews, card sorts and user testing. Cultural probes were also used to ensure that the views of hard to reach groups have been included.

Key findings of the work include: that the majority of information about products is passed by word of mouth and people learning from experience; that people are pretty creative in coming up with their own solutions if a product can’t be found and, something that will be familiar to OTs, there is stigma associated with product use.

One of the issues raised is that even if people find their way to an equipment catalogue the way information is presented currently means that it may still not be obvious what a product is for.

So how to make it easier for people to find out information about products?

A great question and really interesting to see how this has been approached from a co-created collaborative approach. During the session we were asked to input our views on a range of questions arising from the project and given an insight into some of the ideas that are being tested. These included things that will be familiar such as

• Databases
• Information sheets e.g. Top 10 gadgets for your home….. under £50
• Video tips – on how to use specific items of equipment e.g. using a helping hand or how to adapt things yourself – e.g making handles of cutlery easier to hold

and some things that are new and innovative

A Chat BOT – which takes users through a series of questions to arrive at suggestions of possible products

It was great to have an opportunity to find out about the project and also input into some of the ideas. All of these are at prototype stage and will provide ARUK with new ideas about how it can work more closely with people with arthritis to support people with arthritis in identifying products more easily to maintain their independence.

Written by @LynneGoodacre

 

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