This week one our own @OT_rach will be hosting the chat

Occupational therapy can often be difficult to describe to others. One reason for this might be some of the language we use to describe the interventions we undertake, words like occupation and activity can have different meanings to different people and other professionals.

We are sometimes challenged by what people see us doing, for example engaging people in activities. To others the reasons why this activity has been chosen, might be misunderstood or not understood in the first place. Also there is limited recommendations within NICE Guidelines and government white papers that describe the level of occupational therapy expected and how this should be delivered.

In my experience in working within acute mental health wards. There is often a presumption we are there to engage and entertain patients rather than deliver therapy. For me this is an ongoing battle as a recent CQC, report stated service users did not have enough to do, this was seen as the occupational therapist role and responsibility by the organisation I work for, and we were asked to offer activity for more hours than we currently do.

Those that work in physical settings can often be seen as discharge facilitators, perhaps not completing a comprehensive occupational therapy assessment due to the restraints and expectations of the organisation they work for.

The above are just examples of my experience but the questions below aim to provoke discussion during the chat to hopefully generate ideas on how we improve understanding of Occupational Therapy to our colleagues, organisations and service users.

Question 1) How do you describe occupational therapy to your colleagues, service users and organisations?

Question 2) What is the difference between occupation and activity?

Question 3) Have you come across a lack of understanding of what occupational therapy is? If so please give examples?

Question 4) What resources have you used to explain Occupational Therapy better to your patients, colleagues and organisations?

Question 5) What more could be done to ensure that organisations understand the role of occupational therapists?

Looking forward to the chat see you Tuesday 8pm on twitter.

Rachel

References

Nice Guidance -Mental wellbeing in over 65s: occupational therapy and physical activity interventions Public health guideline Published: 22 October 2008 nice.org.uk/guidance/ph16

Nice Guidance- Parkinson’s disease Quality standard Published: 9 February 2018 www.nice.org.uk/guidance/qs164