Occupational Therapy News OTnews May 2020 | Page 50

FEATURE COVID-19
Keeping assessments on track
Due to the government’s requirement for people to stay at home and social distance during
COVID-19, many local authority services, including Blue Badge scheme assessments
were hit hard. Here, Stephen Naylor shows how one provider worked rapidly to introduce
telephone appointments to keep the service running in parts of England
T
50 OTnews May 2020
he UK government’s lockdown on 23
March, due to COVID-19, has resulted in
delays to many county council services,
including the Blue Badge independent
mobility assessments, which are traditionally carried
out through face-to-face assessment.
The enforced restriction in public movement
meant that occupational therapists working as Before the coronavirus pandemic spread, the expert
assessors carrying out this work would interview and
then observe the applicant mobilising to determine
their eligibility.
A summary of the occupational therapist’s
observations, together with information gathered at
an interview, such as the applicant’s difficulties and
medical condition, would show clearly and concisely
expert assessors could no longer carry out these
assessments in the usual way, as the required contact
would create increased risk of cross infection for both
the particularly vulnerable people being assessed and
the occupational therapists carrying them out, often in
busy venues such as town halls.
One provider of these occupational therapy
services to a number of local authorities in England,
identified that they would need quickly to act to
support their clients and end users.
To help protect people and councils’ positive
reputation, Access Independent worked with local
authorities and expert assessors to deliver a plan that
would still allow the local authority and occupational
therapists to continue to provide this statutory service
in an efficient, effective and timely way.
Under the criteria set by the Department for
Transport (DfT) in the ‘unable to walk’ criteria, the
guidelines state that the occupational therapist must
consider nine aspects to determine eligibility of the
applicant applying for a Blue Badge:
• the level of pain experienced by an individual when
they are walking, or as a consequence of walking;
• the degree of breathlessness they incur when, or
as a result of, walking;
• the distance over which an individual is able to walk;
• the speed at which an individual is able to walk;
• the length of time that an individual is able to walk
for;
• the manner in which the applicant walks ;
• an applicant’s use of walking aids;
• the applicant’s outdoor walking ability; and
• whether the effort of walking presents a danger to
the applicant’s life or would be likely to lead to a
serious deterioration in their health. the reasons for the decision made.
Working closely with Plymouth City Council and its
parking operations manager Zoe Anning, within just
a few days of the lockdown announcement, Access
Independent’s senior expert assessor mobility clinical
lead occupational therapist Susan Gray, with input
from other experienced occupational therapists,
produced and had approved a reviewed Blue Badge
assessment form and process that could be carried
out successfully over a telephone call.
All of Plymouth Council’s applicants were
immediately contacted regarding their appointments
to ensure that these vulnerable groups were reassured
as soon as possible that they no longer needed to
attend a face-to-face assessment with a potentially
risky journey.
The occupational therapists who were due to carry
out the assessments for the city were informed that
these would now be done by telephone, and that they
would be supported with specific training, guidance
and assessment tools.
The date and time for the telephone assessment
remained the same as the planned face-to-face
assessment, making the process of change as smooth
as possible.
A booked appointment with an allotted time for
each assessment helped the applicant prepare for the
appointment and helped the occupational therapist to
manage the interviews.
‘This also helped to add gravitas to the new
interview style and combat the perception that the
telephone assessment was less serious or a more
informal chat,’ Susan explains.
‘The occupational therapists were trained to start
the telephone conversation with the applicant by