Mental health on addressing the challenges and strengths individuals with eating disorders can experience amid life transitions .
Mental health on addressing the challenges and strengths individuals with eating disorders can experience amid life transitions .
The impact of working with a peer support worker was most noteworthy due to our combined knowledge of lived experience and practical support to build resilience in patients within the first three years of their eating disorder .
Designing these workshops together was a meaningful way I honed my leadership and group management skills and introduced a completely new asset to our eating disorder service .
Building the workforce
Further meaningful changes were seen , in that patients were seeking out occupational therapy opportunities themselves . Having accessed the whole multidisciplinary team to communicate any occupational therapy needs in their caseload , as appropriate , cases were not only referred to us , but patients took agency to self-refer .
For the previous five years there had been a distinct lack of occupational therapy presence , so it was empowering to witness how occupational therapy support was now being sought out .
I felt I could now confidently vouch for the need for occupational therapy in any outpatient eating disorders services , so in June 2022 , I appealed to my team ’ s service managers to build our occupational therapy programme , expanding the outpatient occupational therapy staff to have an additional Band 6 OT .
The service managers took this seriously , given the impact they had already seen over that period , and they agreed to build our workforce .
From August 2022 to January 2023 , in the newly-built eating disorders day programme , I transferred my innovative ideas for patient interventions directly over to the patients there .
I used my organisational and creative skills to help re-imagine the new day programme space , considering each space and how it could best facilitate meaningful interactions and therapeutic opportunities for patients to feel creative and comfortable .
I also helped form the ‘ ground rules ’ for the new building , using trial and error and involving patient voices , as much as possible , prioritising their views around use and group functioning in the patient kitchen and patient common room .
Patients responded very well to this style of leadership , and we found a greater sense of satisfaction based on their feedback . This was very important in boosting their dignity , by valuing and actioning their opinions , as appropriate .
I hope my reflections on what an occupational therapist can achieve in a new setting might inform other occupational therapists ’ work , by showing that there is potential to tailor your role to provide the highest quality care .
The use of your own observations , the evidence base and patient feedback moulds your therapy . There are many opportunities in mental health care where occupational therapy can be the necessary puzzle piece that helps fit multidisciplinary care together . I encourage you to question where you might be able to advocate for a necessary occupational therapy pathway in your mental or physical health setting .
O ’ Reilly C and Johnson L ( 2016 ) ‘ Working with people with eating disorders ’, in Clewes J and Kirkwood R ( eds ) Diverse roles for occupational therapists . Keswick : M & K Publishing , pp . 251- 278 .
Martin JE ( 1998 ) Eating disorders , food and occupational therapy . London : Whurr Publishers .
Words SANDRA BROOKS , Band 6 Occupational Therapist practising in eating disorders , Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust sandra . brooks14 @ nhs . net
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May 2023 OTnews 37