FEATURE MENTAL HEALTH
You’ve got mail
With a big national push for the use of technology in order to support connection
through video calls during the COVID-19 pandemic, what do you do if the
majority of those accessing your service are not computer literate?
Jordan Burrell and Stephanie Leeks reflect on the more traditional
approach they took to continue offering an equitable service
Orchard House is a therapeutic day
hospital supporting older adults
experiencing mental health difficulties.
The service takes a recovery-based
approach and aims to provide its clients with the
opportunity to gain insight and valuable life skills
to support in increasing resilience, independence,
hope and self-efficacy.
As a team, we were understandably concerned
about the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on our
client group, given that most of them are over the
age of 70 and many of them experience co-morbid
physical health conditions that would place them at
increased risk.
We were also mindful that accessing Orchard
House is a valuable part of our client’s weekly
routines, as it provides many of them with a strong
sense of belonging, connection and community,
alongside practical support for their mental and
emotional needs.
Not only that, but it is evidenced that both social
isolation and loneliness are significant contributors
to poorer health outcomes and even increased
mortality, due to associated behaviours and actions
(Shankar et al 2011).
While we knew that isolation was hugely
important for maintaining the physical safety of
our clients (in the sense of protecting them from
infection) we could not help but feel concerned
about the wider impact this would have on their
overall wellbeing (physical, emotional and mental)
and our clients were, understandably, worried
about this too.
Following the physical closure of our service to
clients, we assembled a small team of practitioners,
including two occupational therapists and a link
52 OTnews July 2020