Where would you be without your
Occupational Therapist?
By Occupational Therapist, Fiona Craig.
As we go to print we celebrate Occupational
Therapist week.
The Occupational Therapist within the Allied Health team plays
a very pivotal role in the patient journey through the hospital into
the community. “Occupations” are all the things we do – self-care,
leisure, work, looking after others and fulfilling daily roles and
activities. OT’s take a holistic approach when working with and
empowering patients to formulate goals and supporting them to
achieve them.
We work right across health services within the hospitals and the
community including mental health. So if you see us, please stop
for a chat and find out a bit more about what we do and how we
can support your patients and continue to work collaboratively.
Acute Occupational Therapy team
Face to face with dementia
By Communications Advisor, Stephanie Byers.
You may be forgiven for thinking that your
colleagues in these photos are playing dress
ups in some odd team building exercise. But
in actual fact they are experiencing first-hand
what it’s like to live with Dementia.
A ‘Dementia Reality Tour’ as it is called, was recently held at
Tauranga Hospital. Twelve staff had to wear goggles, headphones
blasting various background noise, ill-fitting gloves and shoe
insoles and then asked to complete simple straight forward tasks
in ten minutes. The idea is that these things impair the senses and
interfere with the ability to concentrate; simulating what it is like for
people living with Dementia.
Ruth Thomas, Midland Regional Dementia Behavioural Support
and Advisory Service coordinator, has been running the tours in
hospitals and health organisations from Gisborne to Taranaki for
the past four years.
“For most it’s a frustrating experience and you can hear their sigh
of relief when the ten minutes is up. But the experience really
opens their eyes to what it is like to live with Dementia and often
people comment afterwards how they will be much more patient
when looking after people who have Dementia in future.”
Ruth has had more than 150 people experience a Dementia
Reality Tour and not one has ever completed all five tasks such
as taking 3 tissues from a box, pouring themselves a cup water or
folding three towels in the set timeframe.
Tauranga Hospital staff experiencing a "Dementia Reality Tour".
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