RCOT is calling on service leaders and practitioners across all sectors to co-operate and work with their local communities to re-imagine services in a way that will help to improve health inequalities and health outcomes for everyone across the UK
RCOT ’ s health equity campaign , # OTsForEquity , which calls for the effective deployment of occupational therapy to improve and establish health equity , is continuing well beyond its launch during November ’ s Occupational Therapy Week .
In a blog on the website , Karin Orman , RCOT assistant director – professional practice , sets out why health equity is ‘ all our business ’ and why it is an RCOT priority for the coming year .
She says : ‘ The time to build health equity is now , if we are to meet the needs of those we support , achieve fairness and justice for occupational therapists , and to meet our profession ’ s potential . We cannot just wait for things to change . We need to build on the work that some occupational therapists have already been doing . We need to make more happen .
‘ That is easy to say and hard to do . What does it mean in practice ? At a time when the day-to-day has never seemed so pressing , how do we think more widely , step
forward and shake things up , and what are the best ideas ?
‘ We do not pretend that RCOT has all the answers . We want to work across the occupational therapy community to kickstart this activity , to build on good work already going on and to identify gaps where more is needed .’
In addition to conversations with regional groups and specialist sections , an Ideas Platform has been created to collect your ideas about how we as individuals , the whole profession , the professional body , and governments can address health equity ( https :// rcot . ideanote . io / home ).
The platform asks people to contribute ideas around four key questions :
• What as occupational therapists can we do as individuals , within our teams and organisations to create health equity ?
• What as a profession can we do collectively to create health equity ?
• How would you like RCOT to lead on the healthy equity agenda [ and ] what would you like to see RCOT do to support members to create health equity and to influence external agendas ?
• What should we be asking governments in the four UK nations to do to create health equity [ and ] what should governments do that that will help us as occupational therapists to do more to create health equity ?
With over 65 ideas already posted on the platform , emerging themes for action that individuals can take include being aware of the challenges people have in accessing services – such as language barriers , lack of technology , poor technology skills – and putting practical things in place to help people overcome them .
Other ideas include : educating ourselves about our service users as individuals and members of their communities , to help ensure that interventions are better targeted and personal goals more achievable ; and reflecting on the language and communication we use and identifying where there is potential for the words we use to become barriers to health .
In addition , being a mentor to other occupational therapists to help them develop their potential , particularly those who have experienced disadvantages , lack of support within their organisations , or have faced discrimination themselves .
For the occupational therapy profession , suggestions include : increasing diversity within the profession and reviewing and understanding the barriers to university and occupational therapy training ; recognising disparity in how different diseases attract resources ; enabling occupations that promote health and wellbeing ; and reshaping occupational therapy services and / or roles within the team , centred on enabling key occupations and the right environments that promote health .
Suggestions on the things RCOT can lead on include : helping members to demonstrate equitable clinical reasoning when working with limited resources ; supporting members ’ continuing professional development and
12 OTnews December 2021