‘ Everyone could benefit from speaking to an occupational therapist …’
A look at how two universities have teamed up to develop occupational therapy provision in the mental health team for university students
The University of Cumbria has teamed up with Lancaster University to offer role emerging occupational therapy placements in the Interdisciplinary Counselling and Mental Health ( ICMH ) team .
Julian Morris , who is trained as an occupational therapist , but works as a mental health adviser in the ICMH team at Lancaster , is interested in the provision of occupational therapy to higher education students , drawing on good examples in Ireland ( Trinity College Dublin ), and North America .
An initial pilot in September 2019 was developed by two University of Cumbria students offering eight weeks of an occupational therapy service and this was further developed in September 2020 , with Janet Regan and Debbie Mahoney , third year BSc occupational therapy students , and Abbie Pearson , a first year MSc occupational therapy student , at Cumbria , with extra support from tutor Bel Youngson .
This article will explore how the occupational therapy service was developed . It considers the underpinning theory used , the barriers and opportunities of developing a new service , especially during the covid pandemic , and the feedback received .
An OBCD framework ‘ Throughout the placement ’, states Janet , ‘ we followed the Occupation Based Community Development ( OBCD ) framework ( Galvaan and Peters 2017 ). This is a collaborative-working framework , developed in South Africa to guide occupational therapists working in community development .
‘ It aims to promote occupational justice and , via concepts such as intersectionality ( Crenshaw 2016 ), explores the ways in which various aspects of a person ’ s identity position them in society as marginalised or privileged .’
She adds : ‘ We were initially sceptical about whether a framework designed for use with marginalised groups was suitable for use with UK university students , many of whom could be seen to be very privileged . However , it became apparent that many students accessing the occupational therapy service were , in fact , marginalised by society , often due to a combination of aspects such as mental health conditions , gender , sexuality or disability .
‘ As our placement progressed , increasing numbers of students went into self-isolation due to flatmates testing positive for COVID-19 . Instead of occupations typically associated with university life , such as sports , nights out and attending lectures , they faced the prospect of two weeks indoors , often with flatmates they barely knew .
‘ The framework uses occupational science concepts such as “ occupational possibilities ” ( Rudman 2010 ) and “ occupational choice ” ( Galvaan 2015 ) to consider how occupations are affected by people ’ s internalised beliefs about what they can or should do , and by external constraints .
26 OTnews May 2021