Occupational Therapy News OTnews February 2019_Joomag | Página 6

NEWS
Care minister Caroline Dinenage meets Tower Hamlets Together team
The care minister Caroline Dinenage visited Mile End Hospital to meet
government to come and visit us today. The recently published NHS
with occupational therapists.
Long-Term Plan, with a focus on prevention, supporting people at
Arranged by the Royal College of Occupational Therapists
home and primary care, will be enabled by services such as the
(RCOT), the visit was to showcase how occupational therapy led
one here in Tower Hamlets. As we await the green paper on social
services are improving the health and wellbeing of the community.
care, I hope she will take the message of the value of occupational
The visit was organised by RCOT following a conversation
therapy back to Westminster and share it with her colleagues in
between RCOT chief executive Julia Scott and the minister last year,
the Department for Health and Social Care. I am reassured that Ms
where Ms Dinenage revealed that occupational therapy had been a
Dinenage may still yet consider our profession as a career option
career option for her at school.
should she ever decide to give up politics.​’
The minister met with RCOT staff and the Tower Hamlets
For more on inviting decision makers to your occupational therapy
Together team to hear how occupational therapy has been a key
service, please email: [e-mail].
driver of significant health
and wellbeing improvements
in the Tower Hamlets
community, supporting key
work streams in areas such
as keeping people out of
hospital, supporting people
with complex needs to live
independently, and primary
care.
The occupational therapy
approach, treating the whole
person and enabling them
to do the things that are
important to them has been
pivotal to the culture change
within the borough
Julia Scott said: ‘We
are delighted Ms Dinenage
could take time out at such
Caroline Dinenage (third from left) meets staff and service users
an incredibly busy time for
Make AHPs integral to cancer service development, says
UK’s first AHP workforce cancer survey
AHPs should be integral to the development and transformation
of cancer services, particularly in early interventions, according to
Macmillan’s first AHP workforce cancer survey.
The survey found that less that 15 per cent of AHP patients
are currently seen before treatment begins. The majority of
occupational therapists reported seeing patients with advanced
cancer or at end of life.
1,774 AHPs responded to the survey, including 480
occupational therapists.
The average occupational therapist sees four cancer patients
a week and sees each patient for 46 minutes per session, the
longest of any of the surveyed professions. Half of occupational
therapists carried out structured holistic needs assessments with
patients, far higher than others.
The number of people living with cancer is set to increase
from 2.5 million in 2015 to four million by 2030, driven by rising
6 OTnews February 2019
numbers of people living
longer after treatment.
It means people often
have more complex care
needs with a high need
for rehabilitation.
The majority of
respondents felt more
AHPs were needed to
support people living
with cancer, and one in
ten reported working
20 per cent more than
their contracted hours.
The report is available at: www.bit.ly/2Dv5caa. There is more
on prehabilitation on page 14.