Occupational Therapy News OTnews May 2020

PROFESSIONAL RESOURCES BJOT NEXT ISSUE The June issue of British Journal of Occupational Therapy begins with a special editorial celebrating the life, work and legacy of Ann Wilcock, written by our former editor-in-chief Christine Craik. We hope to pay tribute to Ann by publishing a standalone collection of her work and articles influenced by it. Our first research articles are our editor’s choices, by Ambrose et al and Toglia et al. In a scoping review, Ambrose et al look at the impact of Person-Environment-Occupation transactions of joint attention in children aged six to 12 years with autism spectrum disorder, finding a relationship in the six included studies. Toglia et al describe the means of establishing and measuring treatment fidelity of a complex cognitive rehabilitation intervention that uses a metacognitive framework. The issue continues with a paper from Kramer-Roy et al on the developing role of occupational therapists in school-based practice and their experiences of collaborative action research in low-resource contexts, in this case focusing on Karachi, Pakistan, where this was effective in developing appropriate educational resources and developing skills in the team of occupational therapists and local teachers. Prunty et al look at how grip strength and pen pressure affect handwriting difficulties in children with developmental co-ordination disorder, determining that these are not major contributors despite common assumptions from clinicians that they play a role. They found no differences in three measures of grip strength between a group of children aged eight to 14 years with developmental co-ordination disorders versus control group, and no significant differences between grip strength, pen pressure or handwriting performance in the first group. Farragher et al describe the development of the PEP programme, an energy management education programme designed to meet the needs of people experiencing fatigue during end-stage renal disease. This preliminary study found that the programme, consisting of online modules on energy management, was usable when tested with five people from the target population. Finally, the last article in this issue, from Olofsson et al, is a cross-sectional study interviewing 63 people with stroke, describing and comparing the numbers of places visited for activities outside the home and how this was affected by various factors, finding that severity of disability and driving a car influenced the total number of places visited. More COVID-19 updates added on RCOT website RCOT’s COVID-19 webpage is continually updated with new information, and this month includes: • updates on personal protective equipment (PPE), including a video of RCOT policy officer for Scotland Alison Keir sharing tips on effective communication while wearing PPE; • updated information on looking after your health and wellbeing; • updates for students, apprentices and education providers; • new links to guidance for England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. New advice has also been added to the RCOT website on finding the right videoconferencing tool, including important information on privacy and security settings, mitigating risks, consent and evaluation, as well as a video to talk you through the issues. RCOT is still open for business and will continue to provide core member services, although it may take a little longer than usual to respond to some enquiries. That includes our membership team, professional practice enquiries service, web team and library service. All contact details are available at: www.rcot.co.uk/covid19. Join the Virtual Frontline Can you offer your skills in the PHE Contact Tracing Service Programme? In the fight against COVID-19, you can help support the NHS by using your clinical skills and expertise – and all from your own home. This is an exciting new opportunity for currently- registered practitioners to work as a Clinical Contact Caseworker. Find out more about this opportunity: www.nhsprofessionals. nhs.uk/contact%20tracer. New from SCIE – COVID-19: Supporting autistic people and people with learning disabilities The Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) has produced guides for families and professionals supporting autistic adults and adults with learning disabilities during the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis: • for social workers and occupational therapists; • for care staff; and • for carers and family members. Visit the SCIE website to download the guides: www. scie.org.uk/care-providers/coronavirus-covid-19/learning- disabilities-autism. OTnews May 2020 59

Occupational Therapy News OTnews May 2020 | Page 59