The role of OT with people with Eating Disorders

Hey :)

It's been a while since I updated this, I've been mad busy over the last few weeks. It's my own fault, I need to learn to say no to opportunties (!).

Anyway, since it's been a while I thought I'd start with a (relatively) easy post. A few weeks ago I went to a SHOUT event. SHOUT is a student led regional BAOT group and I would highly recommend checking them out on twitter and facebook! This month's event was entitled "The role of Occupational Therapy with People with Eating Disorders". I will confess that I had never shown any particular interest in ED before, but I was pleasantly surprised at how engaged I got in discussions.

One thing that I never knew before the event was that ED are classed as a Mental Health Condition. I knew about the background of mental health disorders to ED, resulting in the need for control, but had not thought about how they were classified. This put ED in a very different light for me. I have always maintained that I am more of a mental health OT, and suddenly ED was on my radar.

Whilst my local area has very good service provisions for those suffering from ED, there is still a lack of OT input into their therapeutic programmes and deliveries. One of the speakers had spent a role emerging placement with the ED team and she presented her experience. Many of the situations she came across and the methods used to deal with these were "bread and butter OT". There was nothing spectacularly different about helping people with ED. The emphasis was simply put on being there for them, listening to them and supporting them to change their life. Surely this sums up all OT interventions?

The talk certainly challenged many of my ideas and preconceptions about ED, both from a personal and professional level. It made me realise that our inherent OT skills ARE transferable and they should be used in so many more situations. It does not take a team of researchers to realise there is a role for OT, nor does it take an academic to implement changes. These are grass roots plans that can be put into action by any qualified or student OT.

If you have a small amount of time to spare

This is completely non-OT related, but it is a subject very close to my heart.

Please, if you have a few minutes to spare, watch this video ...

http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/video/interview/9935-steve-rotheram-speech-in-full

Justice For The 96 <3

Question time

I wouldn't consider myself a fan of BBC's Question Time, but as I do have a moderate interest in politics I tune in occasionally. Last night I switched it on (admittedly because at the time there was nothing else on!) and found myself getting very involved in the debates.

The main debate that caught my attention surrounded the NHS Reforms, and put Andrew Lansley right in the spotlight.

Whilst there were many points from all sides that can be praised and criticised, I just want to pull apart a few.

Firstly, and as far as I'm concerned the most important was the lack of recognition that there are more than just doctors and nurses working in the NHS. Obviously as an OT I feel very strongly about the (lack of) promotion and recognition of our skills and services in the public domain but there are many other Allied Health Professionals out there who face similar situations. If those who are ultimately in charge of all these reforms cannot acknowledge this breadth of sets of unique skills, what hope have we got??

Whilst I understand and respect the fact that we have to be more confident in our promotional skills, this change needs to be reflected and aided by government and media otherwise it will be pointless. I know that there are many OTs out there who champion their services and that BAOT/COT have been involved in a lot of the discussion stages of this current reform and the general public need to be aware of this. I recently heard awareness of OT referred to as "most people have never heard of us or what we do, but once someone has benefited from OT they will never forget the impact".

A second point that I found fascinating was the results of a word count in one of the versions of the white paper. I will admit that personally I have not been able to read the full document - I agree with the comments about it being 'unreadable' - however I find it a frightening thought that "competition" is being, formally and officially, put in front of "integration" and "cooperation". Surely this renders everything that I have been taught in all my inter professional modules about collaborative working and service user involvement, useless?

Whilst I find myself agreeing with some of the reasons behind the reform - more accountability, more patient involvement and relevant professionals involved in decision making - I definitely think that Lansley has gone about it in completely the wrong way, and not listened or taken note of the opinions of professionals, patients and the general public who disagree.

NHS and Social Media

Tonight I took part in my first NHS and Social Media (#NHSSM) discussion on twitter. I had seen the hashtag mentioned before but never known what it was for, and tonight I used my best multi tasking and conversation-following skills to try it out!

Tonight's discussion was around electronic patient records. I will have to admit that it got a bit too technical for me at some points, for example when discussing specific systems and programmes for electronic patient records but it was still fascinating! Once I got used to following the conversation (TweetDeck saved me!) it became a fantastic chance to see social media in action. Professionals from around the country, and quite possible the globe all came together to share their opinions and professional experience.

Some of the main points from tonight's discussion were:

• How secure can electronic records ever be?
• Can we restore public trust in the NHS and Electronic Records in general, enough to use electronic records as a standard?
• Would electronic records improve communication between different settings? e.g. community and inpatient, physical and mental health

Personally, I have only had experience of paper records, both in the NHS and in the Private Sector but I do fully agree that electronic records would mean more improved communication between services. I also think that having electronic records would encourage more individuals to check their own records, which in turn should reduce errors. As for the safety of electronic records, well I am definitely not technical enough to know that (!) but I think there does need to be a shift in the public opinion over electronic records, especially following recent media stories over lost information from both governments and businesses.

As this week was my first NHSSM I did not get actively involved, but I am thoroughy looking forward to next weeks discussion and hopefully I will be able to read fast enough to reply!

Heather

OT in the New NHS System

So last week we had a lecture in Uni with the topic "Current Issues". We ended up discussing lots of things about the politics of the NHS, the old system, the new system, where OT fits it and what we can do about it! It's had me thinking so I thought I'd try and get some of those thoughts down now.

First of all, with GPs now in charge of commissioning services, how many of them actually know what OT is, and what we can do? Even if they have heard of an OT in a specific area, how likely are they to know the vast spectrum that we can work in and help ease their patient numbers and costs (unfortunately now a bigger worry for many).

Cost cutting in the NHS nationally then led onto a subject a bit closer to heart, the funding of healthcare students. Currently tution fees are still being paid for those wishing to study for an AHP degree, and because of the funding coming straight from the Government, Universitys are currently tied into teaching what they are told to teach.

As OTs in general - and perhaps even more important for those like me who will qualify in the height of all these changes - we need to develop our marketing strategy skills. Many OTs who have already moved out of the NHS into private companies, voluntary organisations and social enterprises have already done this by choice, but soon we may have no choice. BAOT have already published guides to 'Influence Service Commissioners' which are available on their website to help OTs to develop their skills.

But our main question was ... shouldn't we be being taught all these skills anyway??

Welcome!

Hi :)
I'm Heather and I've just started the final year of my OT degree. I already tweet about OT so I thought I'd go to the next step and free myself of 140 characters!
Hopefully this will improve some of my reflective skills and give me a chance to share my learning and experiences over the next 12 months ...

Heather x