OTnews August 2020 | Page 23

COVID-19 FEATURE © GettyImages/Paul Bradbury All the work we do with our residents has been guided by our individual assessments, is evidenced based and is as therapeutically focused as possible in order to support ongoing rehabilitation – for example education, empowerment and developing life skills. While capturing this we have also been mindful of making both individual and group activities as much fun and as engaging as possible. In terms of educating our residents we have lots of ‘life skills’ activities in our programme, such as cooking from scratch, baking, healthy eating ‘food and mood’, budgeting, online shopping and weekly planning. We are having weekly quizzes to test our knowledge and current affairs groups – looking through a range of newspapers to find positive and interesting stories. Our current client group enjoys the odd takeaway and thus a future idea has been born – ‘Fake-Away’ sessions, where healthier versions of popular takeaways are cooked up, followed by a talk on the nutritional facts around take away food, conveying a strong message on how a healthy diet can be enjoyable and without compromise. Getting creative is a great outlet for self-expression and sharing thoughts and ideas. We offer a ‘Mindful Art’ group, experimenting with colours and different media with a sense of freedom within a safe space to talk if needed. We have created images with sun-print paper and incorporate art work with other activities, such as painting posters and bunting for the recent VE day celebrations, and designing a colourful bar for our ‘Lockdown Mocktails’. This activity was shared with a national ‘lockdown activities’ blog and is available for occupational therapists everywhere. We are also planning to work on an animation project. We are fortunate to have a registered mental nurse/clinical team lead (RMN/CTL), Mark Packer, who has been sharing his passion for wildlife and the natural world by giving talks on anything from sharks to bats to invertebrates; he always leaves his audience fascinated and wanting more. With the weather getting lighter and warmer we have started using our garden as an additional therapeutic space and have Marshall et al (2020) conducted a scoping review to identify and synthesise literature on boredom in inpatient mental health settings. A search of four databases yielded 978 citations and a further two studies were identified from other sources. Following de-duplication and screening/review, 19 studies were included in the narrative synthesis. Content analysis identified four primary themes: boredom as an acknowledged problem in inpatient mental health settings; consequences of boredom; models for addressing boredom through meaningful activity; EVIDENCE LINK and the occupational therapy role in addressing state and trait boredom. The authors identify that the literature indicates boredom is a persistent problem experienced by some people who access inpatient mental health services. They suggest that occupational therapists, as experts in the intersection between occupation, health and wellbeing, play an important role in addressing this. Reference Marshall CA, McIntosh E, Sohrabi A, Amir A (2020) Boredom in inpatient mental healthcare settings: a scoping review. British Journal of Occupational Therapy, 83(1), 41–51. collaborated with New Leaf to hold a gardening group followed by a barbecue, where our residents ‘chef’ the grilling before enjoying the hot food with various salads prepared by them earlier. Since the introduction of the gardening group and the kind donation of planting kits from New Leaf, the garden has become a space for ad-hoc gardening activities where residents who enjoy pottering about are often seen out there tending to flowers, lettuces and tomato plants. The garden has also provided a space for sports and fitness activities, from badminton and ‘mini’ football to boules and gentle exercise using small pieces of gym equipment. The lockdown is proving very challenging for all of us, but we have found that by filling the ward with as much positive energy as possible has had a profound effect on the mood and motivation levels of our residents – and hopefully staff too. It has created a new level of camaraderie within the whole of the Russell Clinic team and the occupational therapists are very grateful for the ongoing encouragement and support from everyone. We also have lots of other ideas on the ‘back burner’, such as a Christmas Panto, so watch this space. Susie Frost, senior occupational therapist, Kate Huggett, occupational therapist, Rachel Tamblyn, return to work occupational therapist, and Lee Wood, occupational therapy assistant, Russell Clinic, Exeter, email: [email protected] OTnews August 2020 23