Student education
A new partnership between a community acquired brain injury service, Northumbria University and a residential care home has created a unique learning opportunity for final-year OT students.
Student education
Feature
Embedding occupation into ABI residential care
A new partnership between a community acquired brain injury service, Northumbria University and a residential care home has created a unique learning opportunity for final-year OT students.
P
eople with acquired brain injuries( ABI) who require residential care often present with highly complex physical, cognitive, emotional, behavioural and communication needs. The move into a care environment can happen at a relatively young age for people with ABI and our own practice experiences led us to understand that this can have far-reaching impact on individuals and their families.
Furthermore, people can experience a decline in occupational engagement when they move into care homes and there are recognised issues of long periods of inactivity or passivity and limited social interaction( Dancewicz and Bissett 2020).
The annual economic costs of ABI in the UK have been recently estimated at £ 43 billion, with some of this cost attributed to limited investment in longer-term rehabilitation and social care provision( APPG for ABI and UKABIF 2025).
Although occupational therapists do have a history of working within residential care settings, in the UK it is difficult to gain an up-todate picture of services. Anecdotally we know that involvement may be limited to episodic intervention, reactive to priorities and risks.
Furthermore, with this type of episodic intervention, visiting health professionals may not have opportunities to get to know residents or staff and may provide written reports which are difficult to share with all involved.
Providing services into, rather than as part of a care home can act as a barrier to embedding
© South _ agency via Getty Images practice and enhancing the skills of the workforce.
Ideas to bridge this gap were discussed between a Community Acquired Brain Injury Service( CABIS) in the Northeast of England and practitioners from Abbeymoor, a residential care home for people with brain injuries and other neurological conditions.
The teams reflected on the benefits of working together, but that this joint working was often limited to initial problem solving when residents moved into the care home, perhaps followed by advice to family and staff and then potential troubleshooting if risks or issues emerged.
There was a desire to work in a more integrated way; developing a deeper understanding of residents’ occupational needs and to promote an enabling environment, giving opportunities for engagement in meaningful activity.
It was this desire to get to know residents, to work on a daily basis with staff, and to take a proactive approach to identifying occupational needs and goals that motivated everyone
38 OTnews September 2025