Occupational Therapy News OTNews March 2020 | Page 16

FEATURE HEALTH AND WELLBEING
Raise the alarm
W
Andrew Mickel hears from
occupational therapists working in fire
and rescue services for their top tips
hile the number of fires is falling in the UK, when they strike they can be truly devastating. They
claim hundreds of lives a year, and those most vulnerable to fire tend to be the same people
seen by occupational therapists every day. Yet fire is not on the radar of many occupational
therapists.
Lauren Walker is now an RCOT professional adviser, but previously worked with the London Fire Brigade as
the Fire Safe and Well regional manager in the Healthy London Partnership.
She puts it simply: ‘Fire safety is everybody’s business. Are occupational therapists routinely thinking about
fire safety in their day-to-day practice, and if not, why not?’
A mutual awareness of fire safety and health has been growing in the last 12 years. Every year, half
a million home visits are carried out in England by the fire service to check on fire risk in people’s
homes. The majority – but not all services – now offer enhanced visits that include a health and
wellbeing component, as it is now widely acknowledged that this can impact upon a person’s
risk of having a fire.
A handful of areas have even seen occupational therapists seconded to the fire
services, modelled on pioneering work in Greater Manchester. Occupational therapists
either work clinically to address complex fire risks or they have strategic roles to create
more person-centred services, or a combination of both.
But such posts are rare, and connections between occupational therapy and
fire services vary massively across the country. There are huge benefits for
fire services to draw on occupational therapy skills, for firefighters to serve
as extra eyes and ears for health and care needs, and for occupational
therapists to join in taking responsibility for fire risk. So what can you do
to bolster links in your area?
Conversations across the cultural divide
A simple starting point is to find out what your local fire and rescue
service is already doing about community safety, and think about
how occupational therapists might get involved.
Go on their website, look for pages about prevention and
community engagement, and get in touch to start a conversation.
It is important in dialogue with fire services to find a way for
both sides to benefit from any new ways of working. And this
is a great moment to do that, says Paula Breeze, the health
and social care services co-ordinator at Greater Manchester
Fire and Rescue Service (currently on secondment at Health
Education England), because of changing approaches in the
fire service.
‘The current driver in fire services is about person-centred
fire risk assessments, so as an occupational therapist, now is
a really pivotal time to approach them,’ she says.
‘Let them know you are an expert in person-centred
thinking, and you can help them develop their assessments to
be more person-centred. That will be a huge bonus for them.’
This shift in the fire service reflects a gradual shift in how they
approach risk. Rather than focusing solely on risks caused by the
physical environment, there is increasingly a focus on how people
and their occupations could increase or decrease fire risk.
16 OTnews March 2020
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