Occupational Therapy News OTnews February 2019_Joomag | Page 26

FEATURE SERVICE DEVELOPMENT
Putting
OCCUPATION
at the centre of
occupational
therapy
© GettyImages/Thomas De Wever
Andrew Mickel talks to staff at
Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS
Foundation Trust about their
endeavours to put occupation
back at the heart of their practice
I
t’s pretty difficult to miss the occupation in the
job title of occupational therapist, but for lots of
the workforce all over the UK, occupation is not
always front and centre in how they work.
Generic working, targets and time pressures are
among the many ways that occupation can slide out
of focus.
Why does this matter? Dr Sally Payne, one of
RCOT’s professional advisers, says: ‘The strength of
occupational therapy is how we work with people to
enable them to do the things they need, want or are
expected to do, but we know how hard maintaining our
unique approach can be in a multidisciplinary world.
‘Keeping occupation at the centre of what we do is
a great way to differentiate ourselves from others and
do the best for our patients and clients.’
Services around the country have engaged with
the call to put occupation back at the heart of their
26 OTnews February 2019
practice, and that includes the 150-strong workforce at
Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust.
Elizabeth Maclennan, head of occupational
therapy at the trust, learned about occupation-
centred practice and could see how the approach
could help the diverse teams at the trust.
Says Elizabeth: ‘We wanted everybody who
works here to have one approach. We have staff
move across, in and out, and rotations. By bringing
everyone together it gives them the feeling we are
all talking the same language and honing in on our
occupational therapy skills. It’s about making us
more coherent and showing our added value.
‘Everyone has jumped on the bandwagon
of function, but this is giving us the opportunity
to show where we stand out and where we are
different in supporting patient care. It’s trying to put
occupational therapy in a position strategically that
we’re very clear about what we’re doing and the
uniqueness of our skills.’
Culture change
The service leaders were sold on taking on
occupation-focused practice; the next step was
seeing what staff made of it. It is a diverse and large
workforce, ranging across acute and community,