Back row left to right : Lynsey Cameron , Anne Scott , Ranah McAusland and Claire Muir . Front row left to right : Claire Heathcote , Gemma Murray , Barbara Lucas and Lindsay McGovern
96 % of patients reported that they felt occupational therapy was easy to access and that they were seen in a reasonable timescale .
Service user and multidisciplinary feedback was positive , and included one patient telling us : ‘ You literally saved my life ’.
Another patient said : ‘ The occupational therapist saw me as a whole person ; the help and guidance I received has improved my quality of life .’
While one of the GPs said : ‘ The impact is huge , helps patients , decreases further visits and decreases prescribing .’
The team was also fortunate enough to be finalists in two categories at the Ayrshire Achieves Awards 2023 , being in the top three out of 126 nominations .
Our future plans
The team is hoping to continue to expand the service into all GP services and to continue to increase the number of appropriate referrals and service user engagement . There are plans to increase practice placements for students within primary care and to offer role emerging placements for paramedic students .
Some of the work completed so far includes :
• Developing pathways , referral guidance and promotional material .
• Developing and delivering information sessions on the role of occupational therapists to colleagues within GP practices .
• Producing a monthly impact report to share with all stakeholders .
• Gathering monthly feedback from all service users and multidisciplinary team colleagues .
• Developing a clinical peer supervision structure .
• Creating an inhouse training programme .
• Producing patient information leaflets on fatigue , attention , memory , executive functioning and pain .
• Presenting a poster at the NES 2023 conference and a flash presentation at RCOT ’ s Annual Conference .
• Completing an audit of outcome measures to refine data collection .
• Participating in an RCOT research project with Rocket Science .
RCOT resources
Primary Care Monthly Drop-in : find out more and get support at bit . ly / 3PlwmFw .
The RCOT Evidence Spotlight on Occupational Therapy in Primary Care can be downloaded at bit . ly / 3sxUk7x .
Primary care evaluation : in collaboration with Rocket Science , RCOT has been working across three sites in England , Wales and Scotland to collect data about the impact of the profession in GP surgeries . To find out more , read the research summary at bit . ly / 3sNNyKF .
R
The Scottish Government ( 2018 ) General Practice – Primary Care Services . Available at bit . ly / 3suXp85 [ accessed 31 August 2023 ].
Words LYNSEY CAMERON , Advanced Practice Occupational Therapist , South Ayrshire Lynsey . cameron5 @ aapct . scot . nhs . uk ; GEMMA MURRAY , Advanced Practice Occupational Therapist , South Ayrshire Gemma . murray @ aapct . scot . nhs . uk ; RANAH MCAUSLAND , Advanced Practice Occupational Therapist , East Ayrshire , Ranah . mcausland @ aapct . scot . nhs . uk ; ANNE SCOTT , Advanced Practice Occupational Therapist , North Ayrshire
Anne . scott @ aapct . scot . nhs . uk
September 2023 OTnews 45