8 minute read
What’s New
What’snew?
OTS CAN NOW SIGN FIT NOTES
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In June, the government announced that more allied health professionals, including occupational therapists, will now have the authority to sign fit notes for patients. The new legislation will come into effect from 1 July 2022 across England, Wales and Scotland, and is designed to relieve the pressure on doctors and GPs. Occupational therapists, nurses, physiotherapists and pharmacists will now be able to legally certify a fit note for a patient in general practice or hospital setting, authorising that the patient is fit for a return to work. Fit notes, which were brought into use in 2010, provide evidence to your employer about your absence and any relevant advice on how to support you to remain in or return to work. Previously these notes could only be signed by a doctor, but by enabling more allied health professionals to assess and authorise a fit note, this will not only ease the pressure on doctors and GPs, but will open up more lines of communication for patients to discuss health and wellbeing concerns with the relevant health professional to them. Director of practice and innovation, at The Royal College of Occupational Therapists (RCOT), Karin Orman, said: “By joining forces with DWP and being bold and progressive, we are happy to have helped opened this new opportunity for occupational therapists. “Workers and employers are crying out for more help to support people with health problems to stay in work where they are able to do so. These new changes mean occupational therapists are directly able to provide that advice.” In April this year changes were made that allowed fit notes to be issued digitally, making the process far more efficient for all involved. This further change will further increase efficiency for employees, employers, doctors and GPs.
Southampton OT students collaborate with charity
Occupational therapy students at the University of Southampton have partnered with Southampton Living Well (SLW) to help improve mental health and wellbeing among their service users. Six students from the university are engaging in activities with the older people supported by SLW, taking part in flowerpot decorating and seed sowing, while getting to know them. Alison Fisher, day opportunities manager at SLW, said: “We were thrilled to be contacted by Fay Hughes an occupational therapy lecturer from the University of Southampton and were so pleased that she had a group of students that wanted to meet some older people in their community and help create activities they would enjoy. “During the first week, the students chatted with the individuals we support and got to know each other better. They then returned the following week to decorate flower pots together. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed this, and our customers all looked forward to seeing the students again. “The week after, they all filled the pots with soil and sowed seeds and our customers are loving watching what they planted grow. Having the students interact and spend time with our customer is fantastic and has really brightened everyone’s days. Intergenerational contact is so important, and it proves that people of all ages can get along together and share interests.” Student Emily Edwards said: “As a group of six occupational therapy students we planned an activity based around decorating plant pots and planting seeds. We felt a real sense of connection with the customers throughout the activity, with everyone expressing a part of themself through their pot. Everyone chatted and joked throughout the session, and we all agreed we could have carried on all afternoon! “We are grateful to the Living Well programme for facilitating this experience and the brilliant work that they carry out.”
SEATING MATTERS LAUNCH SYDNEY GOFLAT™ CHAIR
Seating Matters specialise in providing clinical therapeutic seating to hospitals, long term care facilities and families across the world. They have launched a new seating solution to help transfer critical care patients.
The Sydney GoFlat™ has been designed to enable the safe and efficient transfer of critical care patients from lying in bed to a fully seated, clinically optimised position offering care professionals new options in early patient mobilisation. Speaking at the launch of the new model, Seating Matters director Jonathan Tierney said: “We are very proud to launch this new addition to the Seating Matters range. The Sydney GoFlat combines the traditional Seating Matters principles of seating with the benefits of our advanced GoFlat technology allowing lateral transfers.” Clinical director Martin Tierney added: “Extensive research demonstrates the many benefits of getting patients out of bed as rapidly as tolerated and the negative impact that long term bed rest can have on muscle mass, bone mineral density and impairment in other body systems. “Time and again we were asked for a lie flat chair but built to the high Seating Matters clinical standard. The Sydney GoFlat was designed and refined in direct response to clinician feedback. We wanted to help advance early mobilisation, enabling patients to be discharged earlier from the ICU and ultimately from hospital.” “Feedback we have heard during the field-testing phase of this exciting new chair is that in addition to the many significant physical and functional benefits there have been untold mental and emotional benefits for patients. Our very first patient was in an ICU unit in Australia and her occupational therapist thought the Sydney GoFlat was a game changer in her patient’s treatment.” Seating Matters specialists are providing free demonstrations of the Sydney GoFlat across the UK and Ireland, details can be found on
seatingmatters.com.
HSCP pilot finds success
A year-long pilot by East Renfrewshire Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP) which saw occupational therapists support care home residents had been called a “huge success” and resulted in the creation of a permanent role within the HSCP to allow OTs to continue to provide beneficial treatment. HSCP identified two care homes - Norwood House in Barrhead and Eastwood Court in Giffnock - that could benefit from the addition of a specialist mental health OT to combat the impact of COVID-19 on both the care homes’ staff and residents. With the support of a £5000 grant from the Elizabeth Casson Trust, OTs created spaces for patients living with dementia, introduced more dementia-friendly signage, and advised care staff on appropriate activities. In Eastwood Court, they also established The Staying Inn, providing residents with a comfortable pub-like space to socialise in. Manager of Norwood House Annemarie McNaught told Barrhead News: “The input of an occupational therapist has helped us become more dementia friendly and the support has already made such a difference to our lovely residents, particularly those living with dementia.” “I do hope we can continue to work together.”
OT INVOLVES FATBOY SLIM IN DJ WORKSHOP
Legendary DJ and ex-Housemartins bassist Norman Cook, known better as Fatboy Slim, offered a DJing masterclass in his hometown of Hove, Essex last month as part of an NHS project to help people living with severe mental illness. Cook was joined by Brighton DJs Audio Anonymous/Atomic drop at the session, which is part of Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust’s arts programme Make Your Mark. Senior occupational therapist at Sussex Partnership Natalie Rowlands reached out to Cook to see if he might be interested in taking part in the event, funded by the NHS charity Heads On to support people living with severe mental illness, and also sees them taking singing workshops, samba classes and more. Rowlands said: “We are absolutely delighted to be working with Fatboy Slim and Audio Anonymous/Atomic Drop to challenge some of this stigma and bring the sheer joy of music to people.
“It was truly amazing to see the joy on participants’ faces during this workshop.
“One individual told me that it had been a pivotal moment in her life, it was the beginning of a new chapter for her and something she will never forget.
“While there is growing understanding about the role the arts and creativity can play in recovery for people with common mental health problems, much less is known about this for people with severe mental illness, who can often face the greatest stigma around their illness and as a result far fewer opportunities to be creative.”
ALDER HEY LAUNCHES “HOSPITAL WITHOUT WALLS”
Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust has launched its “hospital of the future” to offer hybrid physical and virtual care to children and young people. Developed in collaboration with Microsoft and Mindwave, its hybrid health platform AlderHey@nywhere seeks to offer solutions to the finite capacity of the hospital, using cutting-edge technology to provide innovative healthcare solutions in a “hospital without walls”. Managing director of Alder Hey Innovation, Claire Liddy, said: “At the moment, healthcare is most often about treating people that are ill. What we want to do is to shift to a more preventative model of care that is individualised and tailored and that empowers children and young people to take ownership of their healthcare and treatment. There are so many different technologies out there now, including wearable technology and devices such as smartwatches that enable you to monitor your health at home. What we needed was a hybrid platform to bring it all together into one place so that families, children and young people could access it, alongside their clinicians at the hospital.
“We think the AlderHey@ nywhere™ platform will allow us to elevate the level and access to care for children and young people who tell us that they want to be empowered to understand and manage their own healthcare and treatment. It also allows us to move to a more preventative healthcare modelling, making healthcare more individual and personalised.”
