You ’ re the ‘ pivotal ’ profession in the community rehab space , Jenny Keane tells OTs
In a plenary session focused on enhancing community-based rehabilitation , Jenny Keane , National Director Intermediate Care and Rehabilitation at NHS England , told occupational therapists that they have the ‘ unique skills set ’ needed to deliver on this agenda .
Jenny delved into the intermediate care review and how the occupational therapy community ’ s expertise and influencing has shaped NHS England ’ s thinking around community rehabilitation and how in her role she ’ s using the levers available to make sure that rehabilitation is increasing in profile .
She also said she is working to ensure NHS England and other government departments are ‘ listening to and hearing that message ’.
A key message was that to be able to support system flow and look after people well requires the joining up of all parts of the system . And that , as much focus as there has been to date on the in-house hospital processes , ‘ none of it will really lever any change ’ until the issue of community capacity and rehabilitation is fully addressed .
The crux of the matter , Jenny said , is that she believes ‘ we don ’ t have a discharge problem , we actually have a problem with having the right capacity and capability within our community services to be able to recover people ’.
Calling for the language around community rehab to be simplified – especially when it comes to conversations with the executive team and government colleagues – she shared that she has started to use the description : ‘… ensuring we have the services that can support people to “ walk , talk , eat , drink , sleep and engage with activities of normal living ”.’
Pointing out that , in England , over 10,000 people will spend the night in acute hospital instead of a more appropriate place , like their home or in the community , Jenny went on to talk about how the transformation of services is a key element of the NHS ’ s recovery , in which intermediate care will play a key role .
There are a number of areas for action , she said , when it comes to scaling up the intermediate care ambition , including :
Jenny Keane increasing capacity ; growing the workforce ; improving discharge ; joining up with social care through the Better Care Fund ; and working with Frontrunners , local authorities and voluntary and community partners .
By the Autumn of this year , NHS England will develop a new intermediate care framework and national standard for rapid discharge into intermediate care , based on the learning from the Intermediate Care pilot sites , she promised .
The main objectives will be to reduce length of stay and beds lost , decrease long-term care costs and increase the number of people receiving rehab after an acute hospital admission , thus improving people ’ s outcomes and function .
She said : ‘ I really do hope … that there will be more opportunity for system influencing and strategic leadership roles [ for occupational therapists ] to emerge as we start to role this intermediate care plan out across England .
‘ It will be absolutely pivotal to the success of the work that there are occupational therapists – particularly OTs with a local authority background – that step into that space .
‘ I have to do a lot of influencing at government level to explain that there isn ’ t just one profession involved in rehab ; that the bit that we need for community rehab and reablement is occupational therapy …
‘ So , it ’ s a bit of an ask from [ the occupational therapy community ]. There ’ s nobody else that can do this work . There is nobody else that has the experience across health and local authority doing that ‘ bridge ’ and integration piece .
‘ You ’ re the profession that can do that – others can too – but you have a unique skills set in this space that I think we will need to see flourish .’
Workforce innovation and diversification : take home message
Occupational therapists are the ‘ pivotal profession ’ in delivering community-based rehabilitation ; nobody else can do this work , or has the experience across both health and local authority . You are the ‘ bridge ’ between health and care , fulfilling the integration function .
18 OTnews July 2023