Occupation

Abstracts Thursday 30th June 2016
Contact E-mail Addresses
lorraine.birch@hants.gov.uk
Author Biographies
Lorraine Birch qualified in 2007 working now as Senior
Practitioner Occupational Therapist within the Bed Based
Reablement Service for Hampshire County Council.
R Silva Lead Professional Occupational Therapist/Reablement
Consultant for Hampshire County Council.
Session 59.1
Doing time: you gotta find a purpose in life ain’t ya?
Hardy N, Glyndwr University
Despite numerous interventions to address crime, reoffending
rates remain stubbornly high (Ministry of Justice, 2014).
Although some occupational therapists have documented their
work in supporting offenders to transform their lives and desist
from crime, this research is scarce. Maruna (2001) found that a
lack of future orientation was what differentiated a ‘desisting
offender’ from an ‘active offender’. Surprisingly, the subjective
experience of time use of people at high risk of reoffending has
not been focal in current offender research but is an area worth
exploring from an occupational perspective. This study explores
the personal meaning of the use of time among a small group of
people at high risk of reoffending who live England and Wales.
Ethical approval for this study was obtained from Glyndwr
University (Ref: HardyNJ_RDC1a URDC 19/02/14). Using
Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) (Smith et al,
2009), eight people took part in one in-depth semi-structured
interview, which was digitally recorded. After verbatim
transcription, each interview underwent line-by-line coding and
emergent themes were identified which resonated across the
interviews.
This study presents insightful findings into the way in which
people at high risk of reoffending conceptualize their use of
time and the contextual factors that influence their occupational
participation. Reflecting on and talking about time use provides
a platform with which to inform and develop occupational
therapy practice in offender rehabilitation. Thoughts about the
next stage of this study will be highlighted.
References
Maruna S (2001) Making Good: How Ex-convicts reform and
rebuild their lives. Washington DC: American Psychological
Society.
Ministry of Justice (2014) Transforming Rehabilitation: a
summary of evidence on reducing reoffending. 2 nd Ed.
Smith JA, Flowers P, Larkin M (2009) Interpretative
phenomenological analysis. London: Sage.
Keywords
Disadvantaged, Research, New or emerging roles, Independent
Sector
Contact E-mail Addresses
njhot@therapyforliving.co.uk
Author Biographies
Nickey Hardy works as a part-time OT in social care. He is
currently undertaking a Professional Doctorate in Public Health
at the University of Wales. His research interests include men’s
health and offender health and well-being.
Session 59.2
A pilot study of occupational therapy in a Scottish
prison
Totten C, Paterson M, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde
The literature and practice area of Occupational Therapy
(OT) into secure units through forensic mental health is well
documented with much of the prison OT literature focusing
on prisoners with mental health problems. The link between
an individual’s occupational performance, mental health and
offending behaviour is increasingly being recognised (Couldrick
& Alfred 2007). Whiteford (1997) in her study of occupational
deprivation in a wing of a maximum secure prison in New
Zealand found that prisoners where suffering from a high level
of occupational deprivation which she argued would severely
compromise their ability to re enter society. Eggers et al (2006)
described community re-entry services which focused on
developing the skills to maintain productive occupational roles
in society highlighting the need for incarcerated populations
in the US and how OTs can bring a unique perspective to their
development.
There is extremely limited OT provision in prison healthcare in
Scotland. From March until June 2015 a scoping exercise on
service demand for OT within prison healthcare in NHS Greater
Glasgow & Clyde was conducted.
The scoping exercise consisted of one band 7 OT 2 days per
week for 4 months and one band 6 OT 1 day per week for
3 months. They were based in a newly built prison which
has capacity to house approximately 750 prisoners including
those on remand, and those serving short term and long term
sentences.
In total 20 patients were assessed by OT and engaged in
intervention. This involved 56 individual contacts both in the
prison health centre and residential halls and 13 group work
contacts in the communal group centre.
This paper describes the demographics of referrals received
during the scoping exercise, the assessments and interventions
provided by OT and the recommendations proposed for future
service delivery. We discuss the process currently pursued
to achieve a service strategy to provide continuity in service
provision throughout Scotland.
References
Couldrick & Alfred (2007) Forensic Occupational Therapy Wiley
Publishing, London
Eggers, M.,Munoz,J.P.,Sciulli, J.,Hickerson Crist, P.A. (2006) The
Community Reintegration Project: Occupational Therapy at work
in a county jail. Occupational Therapy in Health Care. Vol. 20 (1),
pp 17–37
Whiteford, G. (1997) Occupational Deprivation and
Incarceration. Journal of Occupational Science, Australia. Vol. 4
(2), pp. 126–130.
Keywords
Disadvantaged, Service improvement or transformation
Contact E-mail Addresses
Catherine.Totten@ggc.scot.nhs.uk
Author Biographies
Catherine graduated from Glasgow Caledonian University in
1995 with a BSc in Occupational Therapy. She has worked in
homeless services, addiction services, general adult mental
health services and for the past 11 years has worked in forensic
mental health. Spending 5 years facilitating discharge from the
state hospital at carstairs Catherine now works in the forensic
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