Professional resources
Welcome to our February issue , which is online now . In our leading editorial , ‘ Occupational therapists and public contributors working together in the delivery of RCOT resources ’, Karen Day and Julia Roberts discuss the work of the RCOT publications group , which has been a key collaborator with BJOT in the past year .
Please do have a look if you are interested in knowing more about the group , how it works and how you can be involved .
In our editor ’ s choice systematic review , ‘ Occupational therapy interventions for adult informal carers and implications for intervention design , delivery and evaluation ’ Micklewright and Farquhar aimed to establish the published international evidence base regarding interventions for carers delivered by occupational therapists , showing that OT-delivered carer interventions enhance support and improve carer outcomes .
Firby and Raine present their scoping review , ‘ Engaging with nature and the outdoors : therapeutic applications in contemporary occupational therapy ’. They conclude that occupational therapists enable outdoor engagement through occupation-focused and occupation-based interventions across a range of practice contexts .
However , evidence of current practice is limited and further research is recommended to strengthen the evidence base and inform routine consideration within practice .
Bishop et al , publish an exploratory study , ‘ The relationship between school-age children ’ s interoceptive awareness and executive functioning ’. This study investigated the potential relationship between neurotypical school-age children ’ s interoceptive awareness and executive functioning .
It appears that there is a significant and predictive relationship between neurotypical children ’ s interoceptive awareness and aspects of their executive functioning .
In ‘ Emotional distress and quality of life among adults with developmental co-ordination disorder during COVID-19 ’, Engel-Yaeger and Engel aimed to examine the
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emotional distress and quality of life among adults with developmental co-ordination disorder ( DCD ) during COVID-19 and examine the relationships between these factors in adults with DCD .
The next article , ‘ I left feeling different about myself : What students learn on their first practice placement ’ by Grant et al , presents the first stage of a grounded theory study that seeks to understand what students learn during the course of their first practice placement , with the intention of informing simulated placement development .
Anmoto et al present ‘ Effectiveness of combining robotic therapy and modified constraint-induced movement therapy for moderate to severe upper limb paresis after stroke in subacute phase : Case – control study by propensity score analysis ’.
This is the first study showing a combination of robotic assisted therapy and modified constraint-induced movement therapy ( combined therapy ) in the subacute phase , showing that this helped improve upper limb motor function more effectively and efficiently than conventional occupational therapy .
Finally , in our last article of this issue , ‘ Perceptions of occupational therapists in the UK on the applicability of the reflective framework for community development in occupational therapy ’, by Melville et al , the authors explored whether the reflective framework for community development in occupational therapy , increasingly used by occupational therapists in response to occupational justice theory , is applicable and useful for occupational therapists in the UK .
The mixed-methods study concluded that the framework would support them in fulfilling this role more effectively . To read the latest and past issues of BJOT visit www . rcot . co . uk / practice-resources / journals / bjot .
Apply now for a place on the NIHR Pre-doctoral Local Authority Fellowship scheme
The National Institute for Health and Care Research ( NIHR ) Pre-doctoral Local Authority Fellowship ( PLAF ) scheme is now open for applications . It supports individuals wishing to develop as health and / or social care researchers within local authority settings .
The scheme supports the academic ambitions of individuals wishing to develop as health and / or social care researchers while remaining employed , or at least engaged , within local authorities or local authority supporting services .
These fully-funded fellowships enable awardees to retain their existing employment contracts and salaries , while protecting their time to undertake a bespoke programme of relevant masters level training and to prepare an application for a subsequent PhD fellowship .
With the exception of doctors and dentists , who can already access equivalent dedicated funding opportunities , this award is available to individuals of any profession or background .
Applicants must , however , be employed by : a local authority ; a provider of local authority commissioned services ; or a non-profit organisation ( such as a charity ) that provides services on behalf of a local authority , or supports a local authority in meeting its objectives .
For more information , visit https :// bit . ly / 3JwRgij . The closing date to apply is 23 March 2023 .
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