Occupational Therapy News July 2020 | Page 38

FEATURE REDEPLOYMENT From children to community response Zena Cassels explains how core occupational therapy skills and focus on participation in activity bridged a change in role during the COVID-19 pandemic © GettyImages/sefa ozel When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, the team of North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Trust children’s occupational therapists who normally cover the South Lakes area of Cumbria were keen to be redeployed to support the community. With all face-to-face visits with children halted, except for urgent visits to be done using Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), and schools closed during lockdown, we were asked to join the Eden Community Response Team to support people as they were discharged from hospital, or to prevent hospital admission, which was particularly important at the time. We were welcomed into the team of occupational therapists, physiotherapists and health care and rehabilitation practitioners with open arms and were quickly carrying out home visits and getting used to the PPE. The core occupational therapy role As children’s occupational therapists in Cumbria we provide services to support children’s health, education and social care using the Model of Human Occupation, and the core skills we have were easily adapted to support older people in their home. Self-isolation had meant that many of the people we visited had lost their roles and identity, along with their routine and structure, and so were able to help with this, alongside the environmental assessment needed to support their physical and self-care needs. We were also able to bring a new perspective to therapy input, even suggesting play with Lego and play dough – a novel approach to participation in activity. Multidisciplinary working is core to our work with children, as is liaising with social care, and this continued in our new role, with many joint assessments and visits with the wider team, including double up personal care visits with the rehabilitation assistants. Working with the families was also very familiar, with supporting the clients’ children taking the place of supporting parents. Challenges Aside from the speed at which the change in role happened, the biggest initial challenge was sourcing uniform, as we do not wear uniform when working with the children, and getting used to donning and doffing the PPE; however, we very quickly became used to this and it became a routine part of our day. We also had to very quickly learn a different electronic record system to the one we use with children, as well as a part of our equipment ordering system we rarely use. There were some hastily arranged telephone training sessions and some frustrating mistakes along the way. Finally came the challenge of continuing to juggle the work with our children and families with our redeployed work. Although our normal workload was much reduced, we were still corresponding with families and related professionals and attending important video meetings to support them. It was always recognised that our work with children was our priority and our adopted team were always supportive of this. This resulted in some interesting days working with people from one end of the age spectrum to the other. Redeployment legacy The COVID-19 lockdown was a surreal and challenging time for everyone, but as children’s occupational therapists we would not have changed a thing. We have a new work family and have benefitted from the opportunity to reminded ourselves of the incredible value of occupational therapy in all areas of our community and our ability to use our core occupational therapy skills to work with a wide range of people, regardless of our speciality. We have now returned to our children and families and face a whole set of new challenges in supporting them from a social distance. However, our experience of working in the community through lockdown with a very vulnerable client group at that time has given us the confidence and understanding of the current situation that will help us in our more familiar working environment. Zena Cassels, community children’s occupational therapist, Blackhall Unit, Westmorland General Hospital, North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust, email: [email protected] 38 OTnews July 2020