SERVICE EVALUATION FEATURE
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What is occupational therapy ?
The occupational therapy team at Kent and Medway Adolescent Hospital have created an action list to help them improve people ’ s understanding of the occupational therapy role , based on a young person ’ s education project
There is a recurring question within our profession and one that we continue to endeavour to answer : What is occupational therapy ? To answer this , we need to gain an understanding of people ’ s existing concepts of occupational therapy in order to address any gaps . We can then continue to work in promoting our profession and demonstrating the invaluable services we provide ( RCOT 2019 ).
This question was explored by a young person during their admission to Kent and Medway Adolescent Hospital ( KMAH ) as part of their education project . The young person shared the findings with the occupational therapy team , who then explored this further on an away day .
The project At KMAH the occupational therapy team organises and facilitates an extensive therapeutic ward programme , which gives the young people access to therapies and education . During an admission , a young person chose to complete an Extended Project Qualification ( EPQ ) in education and they used occupational therapy as the focus point of their project .
An EPQ is a stand-alone qualification designed to extend and develop skills in independent research and project management ( AQA 2020 ). For the project , unstructured questionnaires were handed out to patients , education staff and all members of the multidisciplinary team , including nursing staff . The questionnaire consisted of four questions :
• Do you believe occupational therapy is effective in the recovery of adolescents in inpatient units ; if so , or if not , why ?
• What do you think would happen if inpatient units did not have an occupational therapy programme ?
• How , do you think , does occupational therapy work in regard to recovery ?
• Do you think that occupational therapy is important ; if so , or if not , why ?
Identified themes The occupational therapy team collectively reviewed the questionnaires and analysed the findings . The responses offered insightful observations on the perceptions that patients and staff members have regarding the role of occupational therapy in inpatient units .
Interestingly , there were differing responses within the multidisciplinary team , education staff and young people . The only common emergent theme across all respondents was the view that occupational therapy offers a distraction for the young people through the use of meaningful activities . One person commented :
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