Occupation

Abstracts Wednesday 29 June 2016
Author Biographies
Susan Jackson is an Occupational Therapy Lecturer and Practice
Placement Co-ordinator at the University of Bradford.
Sharon Dean and Jayne Brown are Occupational Therapists and
Practice Educators at Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
Session 21.4
Improving the quality and safety of clinical work
with a supervision toolkit
Beal J, Cygnet Health Care
It is widely documented that providing effective supervision
makes a valuable contribution to maintaining safe practice. A
system of regular supervision, integrated with routine appraisal
will ensure high quality care and that any problems that arise
are understood and monitored (DoH 2004). Cygnet Hospital
Beckton occupational therapy department created a supervision
toolkit to help staff with their professional development and
support the quality and safety of their clinical work.
The toolkit aims:
•To provide a structured supervision plan (purpose and direction)
•To facilitate learning, enable shared thinking time and to build
reflective capacity
•To promote good practice enabling the supervisor to monitor
professional and ethical issues.
It begins with an introduction to supervision using a ‘generic’
model designed to utilise the existing clinical skills of
practitioners. This model accepts supervision is a dynamic
collaborative process, practitioners will have different needs
depending on their professional development and preferred
learning style which may change with time.
The toolkit gives structure to supervision sessions, providing
direction whilst enabling a space where the supervisee is
held, supported, challenged and affirmed in their work role.
The toolkit contains a range of tools that may be selected for
supervision by supervisor and/or supervisee these include time
management tools, workload management tools such as circle
of concern and reflective practice tools.
Occupational therapy staff have given positive feedback on
the supervision toolkit; comments include ‘good for career
development’, ‘improves self awareness helping my clinical
work’, ‘has helped me plan an efficient daily schedule’, ‘map
and talk helped problem solving’.
It is felt the occupational therapy conference offers a valuable
forum to share this initiative to improve the structure and quality
of supervision thereby supporting the delivery of high quality
clinical care.
References
Care Quality Commission, (2013) Supporting effective clinical
supervision [online]. Available from https://www.cqc.org.uk.
[Accessed: 14th September 2015]
Department of Health, 2004. Organising and delivering
psychological therapies. Department of Health, London.
Keywords
Occupational therapists, Practice development, Education and
learning, Independent Sector
Contact E-mail Addresses
jenniferbeal@cygnethealth.co.uk
Author Biography
Jennifer joined Cygnet Healthcare as Head of Occupational
Therapy for Beckton, Blackheath and Lewisham in 2012. She
has worked as a therapy manager in the NHS and independent
healthcare provison. Jennifer is driven and focused to improve
training and provision of recovery oriented practice to improve
clinical effectiveness and service user satisfaction.
She has additional qualifications to support her practice which
include MSc Advanced Occupational Therapy, Sports Instructor
qualification, Practitioners certificates in complementary
medicine (Indian head massage and reflexology), Psychosocial
interventions and family work, CBT and DBT skills training.
Session 23.1
Mental health practitioners’ use of narrative in
creative arts – implications for occupational therapy
Gilmurray K, University of the West of England
Narrative is an essential element of Recovery (Slade, 2013), and
creative arts have been cited as a useful way to explore personal
narratives (Walters, Sherwood and Mason, 2014) however, to
date, no review of the literature into how narrative in creative
arts is being used in adult mental health practice has been
conducted. This study set out to identify the ways in which
mental health practitioners are using narrative in creative arts,
and to understand the potential implications for occupational
therapy. Literature was searched using a systematic approach,
articles relevant to the research questions were critically
appraised, and findings were synthesised through thematic
analysis. Three global themes emerged, indicating that mental
health practitioners are using narrative in creative arts to: (1)
externalise and make sense of the person’s life as a narrative
(2) explore the ongoing narrative to help clients develop
self-agency and (3) provide a means to share the narrative
and collaboratively explore its wider context. The findings
demonstrate that the professional reasoning process used by
mental health practitioners within this form of intervention is
reflective of that used by occupational therapists and suggest
that narrative in creative arts has potential for being harnessed
by occupational therapists to support clients in developing
occupational identity as part of the recovery journey.
References
Slade, M. (2013) 100 Ways to Support Recovery. 2nd ed.
London: Rethink Mental Illness.
Walters, J., Sherwood, W. and Mason, H. (2014) Creative
activities. In: Bryant, W., Fieldhouse, J. and Bannigan, K. Eds.
(2014) Creek’s Occupational Therapy and Mental Health. 5th ed.
Churchill Livingstone: Edinburgh. pp.260–276.
Keywords
Mental health, Research, Innovative practice, Education
Contact E-mail Addresses
katgilmurray@hotmail.co.uk
Author Biographies
Kat Gilmurray studied occupational therapy at the University of
the West of England in Bristol, graduating in July 2015. Since
September 2015 she has worked at a forensic mental health
unit as part of an innovative pilot project, exploring new ways of
delivering occupational therapy on rehabilitation wards.
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