Susie Wood NORTH EAST

Counties covered :

• Northumberland

• Tyne & Wear

• North Yorkshire

• Durham

• West Yorkshire

Counties covered :

• Northern Ireland

• Isle of Man

• Cumbria

• Lancashire

• Merseyside

Counties covered :

• Channel Islands

• Cornwall

• Devon

• Dorset

• Hampshire

• Somerset

• Bristol

• Greater Manchester

• Cheshire

• Clwyd

• Gwynedd

Damian Smith SOUTH WEST

• Wiltshire

• Isle of Wight

• West Sussex

• Gloucestershire

• Gwent

• West , South & Mid-Glamorgan

Debbie Green EAST OF ENGLAND

Mark Jarratt

GREATER LONDON

Counties covered :

• Berkshire

• Oxfordshire

• Buckinghamshire

• Hertfordshire

• Bedfordshire

• Essex

Counties covered :

• London

• Kent

• Surrey

• East Sussex

• Suffolk

• Norfolk

• Cambridgeshire

• Northamptonshire

spinal . co . uk

The Spinal Injuries Association has developed online café style and face-to-face community groups . My plan is to be an active part of these to provide information related to activities of daily living .

I have also been networking with other agencies and ensuring that more occupational therapy students are able to learn about spinal cord injury . I have been involved with the apprentice scheme at Teesside University and with masters students at Northumbria University .

Education

The Spinal Injuries Association Academy provides formal and accredited training for carers and healthcare professionals . This can be carried out face to face , or remotely via MS Teams or Zoom .

The Academy runs sessions on good clinical practice for spinal cord injury care , skin care , bowel care , bladder care and respiratory care .

I have been able to contribute to these sessions and build my teaching skills and I have now developed a module about rehabilitation . I ’ m proud to say that many of the referrals to the charity come from therapists and providing this module will allow therapists to understand more about spinal cord injury .

Joining the Spinal Injuries Association has allowed me to develop my career in new ways and promoted the role of occupational therapy within a national charity . I am so grateful to all my colleagues for supporting my journey and allowing me to bring some ‘ green trousered ’ perspective to the work that we do .

Words SUSIE WOOD , Spinal Cord Injury Clinical Specialist for the North East Region , Spinal Injuries Association , s . wood @ spinal . co . uk . For more information visit www . spinal . co . uk

Above : A clinical specialist covers each geographical area , as shown

May 2023 OTnews 47