treatment , which feels very normal now , but at the time was quite anxiety provoking .
Meaningful activity is the heart of occupational therapy and discovering how to deliver this without being face to face really demonstrated the core skills and adaptability of our team .
Soon enough , we had produced an evidence-based manual for online , group sensory modulation treatment for veterans who were requiring stabilisation , coping and grounding skills .
The intervention comprised of psychoeducation about sensory systems , introducing the Window of Tolerance ( Siegal 1999 ), calming , alerting and grounding sensory input , personalised sensory kits , sensory comfort spaces and sensory-based stress management plans .
We had an inclusion criteria and maximised the number of veterans to attend to 10 per group , so that the two facilitators could purposefully interact , teach and manage any risk elements while conducting the sessions .
Referrals were made through our interdisciplinary team meetings and initially it took some promoting and education of the benefits of sensory interventions to generate referrals to the groups .
All veterans were receiving their treatment as usual , but were invited to participate in the project by written consent to sharing their data with me as the researcher .
Second and third years
Moving in to the second year of the project , referrals were now flowing and veterans were participating well in the groups and giving positive feedback about how they were using the skills they were learning .
Some veterans found their relationships with their friends and family had improved as they weren ’ t so ‘ on edge ’ all the time , others were back out in the community having prolonged periods staying at home , which was exacerbated by the lockdowns , to avoid any triggers relating to their trauma .
We were seeing some veterans not needing any further treatment and requesting to be discharged from the service after just the sensory groups .
The wider inter-disciplinary team reported that other veterans were going on to their next phases of treatment proactively using their self-regulating sensory skills , kits and stress management plans , which was allowing them to get more out of their therapies .
I recognise when I am struggling and feel confident I have the tools to deal with it .”
This year was the period of data collection , as veterans completed their measures before and after their group treatment , and then again with three short survey questions at their four-week follow up appointment .
The measures looked at anxiety , anger , trauma , dissociation symptoms and emotional regulation and the survey questions were :
• What is your understanding of sensory modulation and how to use it ?
• What have been the changes you ’ ve experienced since using sensory modulation ?
• How have you used sensory modulation in your daily life ?
The final year saw the groups oversubscribed with referrals , more veterans successfully completing this treatment , new occupational therapists joining the team and being trained in sensory approaches and the write up of the outcomes from the project .
The statistically significant changes in data showed that veterans were experiencing less anxiety , anger and trauma symptoms , as well as improved emotional regulation following this occupational therapy treatment .
© Brooke Cagle via unsplash . com
April 2023 OTnews 25