Meet our staff...

Lisa, Rosie and Deanna are three Occupational Therapy students from Leeds Metropolitan University, working with Integrated Services. During their three month placement, they have been undertaking a project, which they explain below.

We are a group of three students studying Occupational Therapy at Leeds Metropolitan University, currently on a role emerging placement with Integrated Services until the 11th July. 

For role emerging placements, students enter into a non-traditional placement setting and introduce or expand the role of occupational therapy within the service and develop a project around this. Occupational therapists (OTs) enable people to overcome obstacles which prevent them from participating in the occupations that matter to them. This may be a result of the aging process, illness, disability or other circumstances.

Our project is to promote occupational therapy to the other professionals working within Integrated Services in Beeston (where we are mainly based) who are predominantly District Nurses and Community Matrons.

During the beginning stages of the placement we gathered information to help us devise our project by shadowing nurses and OTs on client visits, conducting a focus group with OTs and surveying the nurses based at Beeston. Our rationale for the project was that most OT referrals are for equipment or adaptation provision and the OTs in Integrated Services are aiming to work more holistically. This includes enabling clients to engage in occupations that are important to them, such as being able to socialise with friends at a weekly coffee morning, being able to take their dog for a walk, or knitting a scarf for a grandchild.

As part of the project, we have created several posters which will be displayed at Beeston Health Centre, as well as leaflets which will be distributed to staff and patients, explaining the role of Occupational Therapy. During the last week of our placement, we are holding an interactive session with the nurses based at Beeston to explore the meaning of occupation and how beneficial engaging in meaningful occupations is to a person’s health and wellbeing. We will then discuss potential interventions OTs can provide, using case studies to illustrate the role of OT with several different clients.  

Our placement mentors believe there is an unmet need where occupational therapy could improve clients overall health and wellbeing (e.g. clients experiencing social isolation, disruption in roles and routines) however due to the perception of OT within the service these clients are not getting referred. Integrated working requires professionals to understand one another’s roles so we believe promoting OT to other professionals will serve this purpose while also addressing the unmet need of clients. We hope that when the placement is finished our mentors will continue to use the resources we have produced to promote OT across Leeds. 

Lisa Downing,  Rosie Longshaw and Deanna Stephens

Meet our staff...

In the run up to Public Health England's Nursing, Midwifery and AHP annual conference on the 1st July, we have interviewed one our Allied Health Professionals, Angie McKenzie, about her role as a Paediatric Specialist Speech and Language Therapist. Here's what she told us...

 

What does your job involve?

I work with children, usually 2-11 years old, although the childrens' service covers the 0-19 age range. My time is split between working in a community clinic one day a week and the other days are spent in different primary schools. I assess and offer advice on children's speech, their understanding and use of language, and their social interaction skills. I can also give general advice on eating and drinking skills. I work closely with parents/carers and support staff in educational settings. I also liaise with a wide range of other professionals such as Health Visitors, Educational Psychologists, Early Years Service, Social Workers, Doctors, School Nurses and many more. 

Why did you decide to become a AHP professional?

It was having contact with an SLT as a mum and through working in schools. One of my children had trouble saying some sounds; I also worked as a Teaching Assistant in primary schools and began to have training on understanding communication difficulties and how TA's can support children. I worked with children with ADHD, behaviour difficulties, autism, and children who were learning English as an additional language. I also spent a year working with high school pupils who were struggling to read. I kept coming into contact with SLTs, asked loads of questions and decided this was the job for me. The other big appeal was that SLTs can work with all age ranges, with a wide range of different difficulties and needs and they can work in so many different environments! 

How long have you worked as a AHP professional?

It will be five years this October and I can't believe how quickly that time has gone! 

Have you seen the profession change during this time?

I think there has been greater awareness of the role of SLTs in recent years, especially with the film ‘The King's Speech’ and the TV programme ‘Educating Yorkshire’. SLTs are also getting their message across to the wider public and parliament through campaigns such as ‘Giving Voice’.  There is increasing awareness of the significant impact on individuals, their carers and communities that communication difficulties can have; e.g. in the early years, schools, youth offending/prison population, adults and the elderly. The Government is now recognizing that communication skills are a fundamental part of children’s development and difficulties with this key skill directly contribute to educational attainment.   

Do you have a particular highlight from your career to date?

I have two highlights – the first is graduating from university as a mature student from university.  That was something I'd only dreamed I could do, especially as I didn't have a clue what I wanted to do when I left school at 16, apart from wanting to help people. The second highlight happened last year. I was able to work in two of our Child Development Centres as part of a team of medical and allied health professionals who assess pre-school children with complex developmental needs. It was very challenging on many levels but extremely rewarding to be part of such a team supporting families with children who often had significant medical, physical and developmental needs. 

If someone was thinking of becoming a AHP professional, why would you encourage them to do a role like yours?

It can be very hard work, but it's the sense of achievement you get using the knowledge and skills you acquired through your training, and increasing experience, to find that you can make such a difference to people's lives. It's also about being in a position to use those skills to listen, problem-solve, act on concerns, offer solutions and to work as part of a team or partnership. 

Would you like to see the profession change? If so, how?

I'm obviously going to say that we need more SLTs locally and nationally! We are a 'cradle to grave' profession that does so much more than "help people to talk properly". As a children's SLT, I would love to see simple key messages about communicating with babies and young children being put out there by the media regularly for parents. For example, in Leeds we can sign-post parents to locally produced resources and media, such as our interactive website and our online toolkit, to support and educate parents on how to talk to and play with their baby or child. 

What is the best bit about doing your job?

Despite being a difficult and demanding job there are also wonderful rewards. Just this week a little boy began to say his 'tricky' sound correctly after months of struggling, and another little boy began to show real interest in another person and requested a game using eye contact and gesture to say he wanted to play again. These may seem very little highlights but when you have been working with a child for a long time and you see their ‘lightbulb moment’ and their sense of achievement, it's amazing to have been involved in helping them to communicate effectively with another person. 

 

Many thanks to Angie for sharing this with us.