Occupational Therapy News OTnews May 2020

FEATURE COVID-19 Everyday occupational therapy heroes Following the success of last month’s focus on how occupational therapists are working differently or going over and above to support local communities during the coronavirus crisis, even more of you have been sharing your stories, in particular focusing on health and wellbeing, staying active and keeping children’s services going Supporting children in North Cumbria Children’s occupational therapists at North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust work in the community with children and young people with physical disabilities. They are carrying out telephone assessments for all new referrals, followed by an email to parents with personalised information, advice and resources to help the child reach their identified goals. Therapists have provided home programmes for families of children already known to them and will keep in regular contact by telephone to monitor and adjust programmes as required. The team is also working with equipment providers to support families via Skype to adjust seating and other equipment. Home visits are still offered to families whose needs are prioritised for direct contact. 12 OTnews May 2020 Activity packs to reduce occupational deprivation in COVID-19 inpatients Vanessa Phillips is a band five occupational therapist working on the stroke and neurology ward at Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield. ‘Due to the current pandemic,’ she told OTnews, ‘we are currently working under a Discharge to Assess model and have adapted our ways of working to provide fast-paced assessment and discharge planning for patients admitted to the ward. ‘These now include covering patients admitted to hospital under the medical and cardiology teams, to improve capacity for other areas of the hospital for patients admitted with COVID-19. ‘We have adapted our stroke rehabilitation service, with patients either transferred to another hospital for their rehab or discharged home with community therapy.’ Along with a physiotherapist colleague, Vanessa has developed activity packs for COVID-19 inpatients to use during their stay. These packs include puzzles, colouring activities, mindfulness advice and relaxation techniques. ‘We are developing further resources for it in relation to managing breathlessness and exercises from a physiotherapy perspective,’ she says. ‘We are hoping that these packs help reduce the sense of occupational deprivation and improve the wellbeing for our patients. I think it is also a great example of multidisciplinary team working, thinking flexibly about our response to the pandemic and what we can contribute as therapists.’ Vanessa initially saw the idea on Twitter and thought it was ‘brilliant’. She adds: ‘We are looking at fundraising to enable us to continue to develop more packs for our patients throughout the pandemic; they will be useful for so many patients who are admitted to hospital during this time. ‘The mindfulness exercises and relaxation techniques have been used by our occupational therapists on the stroke and neurology ward, so hopefully the activity packs will continue to be useful once the pandemic is over. ‘Developing these packs has given me a new appreciation for Twitter and its use in collaborating with other therapists to share ideas on how we can utilise our skills as occupational therapists to meet the needs of people during such a worrying time. ‘I feel proud to be an occupational therapist every day, but even more so when I read about the inspiring ways occupational therapists are responding to the pandemic.’

Occupational Therapy News OTnews May 2020 | Page 12