Occupational Therapy News OTnews November 2019 | Page 48

FEATURE DIVERSE ROLES
Working outside of the
occupational therapist title
Megan Elliott, who graduated this year, talks to OTnews
about her first role in a crisis team
M
egan Elliott graduated from Teesside
University this summer and is working
in her first graduate role as a crisis
clinician with Tees, Esk and Wear
Valleys NHS Trust.
It is a generic post, she explains, that she is ‘We also manage a suite that supports those
people who have been placed under a section 136
by the police and are awaiting a Mental Health Act
assessment.
‘Here, patients are supported for a short-term period
while they overcome their crisis and are then referred on
‘still struggling to get my head around, never mind
explaining when other people ask what I’m doing now’.
However, she is really enjoying the role, despite it being
a huge learning curve as a new graduate and her being
from a different professional background to the other
team members.
She says: ‘It’s not an area of practice I thought
would be an option for me after studying occupational
therapy. The crisis team assesses and supports those
in a mental health crisis. Often this involves either taking
a gatekeeping role to support admission for those
people who require inpatient treatment, or offering
home treatment to support people through their crisis in
a familiar environment. to other relevant services as necessary.’
Megan finds her work as a crisis clinician interesting
and varied, with each new day completely different to
the last, making it both exciting and unpredictable.
‘Although almost everyone else in the team
is a nurse, my skills as an occupational therapist
are transferable,’ she reflects. ‘We focus a lot on
behavioural activation, a therapeutic method of
supporting people to engage in occupations and
adaptive activities.
‘With the aim of increasing motivation and positive
reinforcement through increasing activity levels, I
feel that my occupational therapy knowledge can
really play a part here. Either through grading, activity
48 OTnews November 2019
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