Doing occupational therapy differently – have we considered it?

I was watching TV last night and they were talking about the Accident & Emergency department crisis in New Zealand where people have to wait for hours and don’t always get the service they need. They showed an A&E department in Australia – who had taken some learning from the toyota motor cars assembly facility – the ‘lean’ method/technique (or some similar word) as a way to address the waiting issue and to avoid getting into traps that prioritising patients though a triage system often brings. They were focusing on seeing the person and getting the intervention right by the right people at the right time, seeing the whole and not just the parts, focusing on the best outcome.

 

I’m not in the heart of practice any more but can remember going to one job where it felt that the people in the job before me had spent most of their time assessing and putting people on the waiting list and not therefore having time to treat the clients. The TV programme and my experience made me wonder whether it was time for us to also think about how we prioritise our clients and whether prioritising is the most effective way to go. I also know that the pressure of waiting lists often gets to therapists. Seeing people who have beenwaiting for a time is also frustrating as it often means intervention has become harder and the client and the family are incredible frustrated about having had to wait.

Interesting on the same night there was a segment on a new stroke initiative to give rehab to stroke clients who have received little since they returned home. It’s a sad fact that rehabilitation seems to be a dying art – so great to see someone pushing for it’s return. I guess what it reiterated for me is that some services that were previously provided by hospital facilities are going to need to be championed by non-government organisations if they are to survive – and as occupational therapists we need to be advocating hard ensure clients have the possibility to receive services such as rehabilitation.

Food for thought

Occupational Therapy Communities of Interest

 

I have been doing a bit of reading about communities of interest and thinking about how belonging to such communities contributes to and enhances the experiences we have.

The literature describes communities of interest as being people with a collective perspective, a common; identity, purpose, and concerns. And importantly they are about sharing and social interaction between the people in them. How well the community works is seen to have an effect on the well being of the people.

Working in an occupational therapy school (you could probably substitute any type of school) the role we have to establish, maintain and grow the community of staff and students is a complex one. Ensuring everyone from the newest of students, to staff who have been within education for some time all feel apart of this same community.

The curriculum we have plays a large part in enabling students and staff to develop a collective perspective, an occupational therapy identity etc. But perhaps of equal importance is the other things that happen within the school e.g the events, the structures and of course the environment which contribute to ensuring we have a strong community of interest. A community that assists students and staff through the hard times, which celebrates the good times, and has a positive effect on everyone’s sense of well being.

My reading would indicate that communities work best when the people in the community feel that their; views are heard, where they are a part of the decision making, where they have a sense of belonging, unity, affinity and compatibility.

I see our challenge as one of ensuring we have not only the best curriculum we can, but ensuring the environment and the other activities within the school also work to develop a positive community of interest inclusive of both students and staff.

This isn’t rocket science and isn’t new, however sometimes it’s good to stop refocus, and reset priorities.

I believe the same thinking applies to teams of occupational therapists in practice.

These URL’s helped shape the thinking in this blog:

http://crawford.osu.edu/cd/cd/myweb2/concept_of_communities_of_interest.htm

http://www.dlg.nsw.gov.au/Files/CommissionsTribunals/bconcept.pdf