Untapped potential for occupational therapy to develop

The 2018 Channel Islands Occupational Therapy Conference was held at Les Cotils.

The theme was Uncovering and Unlocking our Potential, something which Guernsey’s lead occupational therapist, Fiona Hegarty, said was entirely possible in the island.

‘The origins of the event were from last March when Jersey put on the conference,’ she said.

‘There is an opportunity for continuous professional development and to promote services where there is collaboration between colleagues.’

She said the potential in Guernsey was untapped as it had very traditional roles.

It wanted to delve deeper into prevention.

She added that the Guernsey team also wanted to develop its role within primary care and its work with the emergency services.

The conference gave therapists a chance to share different ways of teaching and promoting occupational therapy to other colleagues.

Among those attending were community nurses, social workers, nurses from the falls prevention clinics, fire safety officers and staff from housing services.

The speakers included Dr Jenny Preston, consultant occupational therapist and clinical lead for neurology rehabilitation for NHS Ayrshire Arran, and Paula Breeze, occupational therapist and health and social care coordinator for Greater Manchester Fire & Rescue Service.

Dr Preston said it was great to be involved.

‘It has been a privilege to come over,’ she said.

‘I have been talking about occupational therapists as leaders.’

She said occupational therapists were natural leaders. She was now the leader of a team that was moving away from a purely medical approach to also looking at the person and their needs and helping them to live and manage.

Ms Breeze’s current role involves coordinating the work of GMFRS around all health and social care issues, developing partnerships to reduce the risk for people who are at increased risk of fire because of their health or social care needs.

Her talk centred around the opportunity for occupational therapists to work with the Fire & Rescue Service.

People vulnerable to fire risks included those who lived alone, were on medication, had mental health problems, were over 65, smoked, drank alcohol or who took drugs.

Fire services could also advise on other things, she said.

‘People quite often talk to firefighters,’ she said.

‘Why not use that opportunity to help them in other areas?’

She said it was a low-level intervention and a light touch.

‘If we use smoking as an example, the firefighters might notice cigarette burn marks on the furniture, but they can also give some brief advice about giving up smoking and what support was available.’

It was efficient and, as there were fewer fires in today’s society, she said, the fire officers had more time to focus on prevention.

Everyone could do a little bit of everything, she added, to help improve people’s health and wellbeing.