Occupational Therapy News OTnews April 2019 | Page 7

NEWS
A Northern Irish occupational therapist is heading
overseas to research ways to involve men and women
in prison in developing services to improve their health
outcomes, after winning a major fellowship.
Rachel Gibbs, the assistant director of prison
healthcare services for Northern Ireland, will visit prisons
where work has been done to involve people in positive
ways that support them take ownership of their own
wellbeing.
The results will help build on work already put in place
by Rachel since joining the service two and a half years
ago. She has diversified the workforce by recruiting a
wide range of allied health professionals, that includes
nine occupational therapists, and works closely with the Northern
Ireland Prison Service to make the most of opportunities for
people to engage in purposeful activity.
Rachel said: ‘All the international evidence says that if people
in prison have access to a purposeful day, that reduces the
likelihood of them developing mental health problems in a prison,
and also gives them skills for release. Our occupational therapy
service is growing steadily and the team is extremely innovative.
My interest is in how we engage people in the development of
their own services. People often talk about the lack of staff and
lack of resource. If we include people in prison more, we can
capitalise on the skills they bring or can develop as part of their
rehabilitation. I’m interested in how we engage people to take
control of improving their own health outcomes.’
The many award-winning services developed since then have
included an occupational therapy-led choir at Hydebank Wood
women’s prison, Voice of Release, which won the Advancing
Healthcare Awards top prize in 2017. There is evidence to suggest
Occupational therapist heads overseas to research engagement within prison
healthcare services
that on the evenings people engage in purposeful activity the rates
of self-harm reduce.
As part of Rachel’s fellowship, she will visit prison health
services in Sweden, Spain, Switzerland, San Francisco, New York
and an innovative project in North Dakota in the US, which allows
people to personalise their cell and even lock when they leave it to
go elsewhere in the prison.
The work will help inform how her team engage people living
in Northern Ireland’s four prisons, and the findings will also be
presented at national health and justice conferences.
‘Prison healthcare services could be full of occupational
therapists because activity is central to wellbeing in the prison
environment. Occupational therapists get to utilise all of their
skills,’ says Rachel.
Rachel Gibbs is one of two occupational therapists to win
a Winston Churchill Fellowship this year, alongside Tai Frater,
featured in the March issue on page 11.
Follow Rachel on Twitter at @RachelOT.
Create primary care and housing posts, RCOT
asks parties in Northern Ireland local elections
RCOT is calling on parties in next month’s Northern Ireland local elections to deploy more
occupational therapists in primary care and frontline services to intervene early and to
support people to remain at home.
That includes appointing them to multidisciplinary teams in GP surgeries, and making
sure that each health and social care trust has a dedicated occupational therapist working
on housing adaptations for disabled people.
The Royal College is also calling for more support around and health and work, including
ongoing support for the Condition Management Programme.
Kate Lesslar, RCOT policy officer for Northern Ireland, said: ‘Stormont may remain
shuttered but these local elections offer a chance to promote occupational therapy to
key decision makers. We’ll be using it to help explain to parties why the work we do is so
important and as well as pushing for new roles in housing and work, and recognition for the
vital role they do at present across so many areas including health and social care.’
Elections will be held on Thursday 2 May. Find out more about how to support RCOT’s
calls at: www.rcot.co.uk/northern-ireland.
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OTnews April 2019 7