Occupational Therapy News OTnews April 2019 | Page 15

‘‘
PERSONALISED CARE FOCUS ON
opportunity to support around
an individual conversation with somebody. Just
900,000 people. We think that we
providing people with technology – apps and
As
we
go
forward,
should have around 200,000 people
wearables – can be great for some people
the opportunity to use
receiving a personal health budget
in the population, but actually, we have
over the next five years.
to be careful that we don’t create health
occupational therapy as part
‘And if you properly put in shared
inequality gaps.
of a combined approach
decision-making and planning, and
‘Some people haven’t got the skills,
to
supporting
people
in
clinical conversations… you can see the
knowledge and confidence to manage
scope of extending this.’
their
own health in the ways in which they
innovative and new ways is
On the issue of precipitating the
would like to. I think we’ve got to make
really important.
required culture change, he reflects: ‘I
sure that we work with those people to build
think that other healthcare professionals can
that.
learn a huge amount from occupational therapy,
‘And if we are working with people in a
because of the way in which [personalised care] is
personalised way, and supporting them to discuss
part of the ethos.’
what matters, technology within that space can provide
He expands: ‘To land personalised care in the system we do
transformation that is really phenomenal.’
need to encourage a culture change. That’s where occupational
A recent example in wheelchair services that has caught James’s
therapists working in multidisciplinary teams within primary care can
imagination is that of a young man in Hull with cerebral palsy who
bring about a huge opportunity to open those conversations and
help colleagues understand why the approach to putting people
at the centre of their care and support and adapting services to
meet their individual needs, and taking an asset-based approach to
healthcare, is something they can bring to that discussion at a local
level.
‘As we go forward, the opportunity to use occupational therapy
as part of a combined approach to supporting people in innovative
and new ways is really important.’
This will undoubtedly be music the profession’s ears, but what
support is out there to enable health and care professionals to
achieve this?
‘We recognise that training is really important,’ James says.
‘We’ve set another big ambition of training 300,000 clinicians and
professionals over the next five years, to equip people with the skills
of being able to deliver personalised care.’
James is also working with the NHS Leadership Academy to
support the delivery of personalised care as part of leadership
programmes, ‘because we also need managers, commissioners
and practice managers, and people working in policy, to understand
what the rationale for personalised care is and how it can be
implemented.’
When it comes to providing and disseminating the evidence
for personalised care, there are a number of existing networks
that occupational therapists can tap into. James points to the
demonstrator sites, of which most of are already engaging with
occupational therapy and other allied health professionals in local
systems.
‘We’ve basically just captured best practice from across the
country and said, “Look the NHS has got to get better at doing
this”,’ he says, ‘and look at all these opportunities to learn from other
people in the system, and I think that occupational therapists have a
really great role to play in that.’
When it comes to the role technology has in this agenda, James
says cautiously, ‘we’ve got to be careful that we constantly start with
was headed to university and needed to be wheelchair independent.
A personal health budget helped him to pool funds to get a higher
spec wheelchair and attend university without needing a personal
assistant (OTnews, February 2019, page 16).
‘That was a great example of Dylan receiving the choice and
control he needed to be able to live the life he wanted to lead,’
James enthuses, ‘…facilitated by an occupational therapist using
personalised care.
‘That’s what we need to see. We need to see more creativity, so
that we are not working in our institutionalised silos, we are working
across teams, using personalised care, and creating packages that
support and benefit individuals. But not only that, are much more
cost effective for the system. Everybody wins.’
His final message revolves around ‘renewing the energy and
conversation’.
He says: ‘My key challenges to the system are that we have got
to stop getting into academic arguments about what certain things
should be called and which programmes are better.
‘We know what we can do now. Occupational therapists know
how to deliver personalised care, we’ve got really clear models in the
NHS - what personalised care should be and what it looks like – and
I think we have just got to get on with it. That’s the call to action.
‘People with lived experience have been telling us for years [what
personalised care looks like] and it’s up to us professionals to actually
get on and deliver that for people now, rather than talking about
what it could be like.’
James Sanderson, Director of Personalised Care, NHS England,
will be a speaker on ‘What does personalised care mean for
occupational therapists?’ at the RCOT annual conference, 17 and
18 June 2019, ICC Birmingham (session 20).
For more information visit: www.england.nhs.uk/author/james-
sanderson/. To book your place at conference see: www.rcot.co.uk/
annual-conference-2019-rcot2019.
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