Case Manager's Lunch & Learn Sessions Launched
An OT Practice Lunch & Learn can educate and inform your team on the latest trends in rehabilitation occupational therapy while offering a break from their usual lunchtime routine.
We can cater our L&L’s to your needs and to your allocated time constraints. We will work with you to tailor the information for your team based on their clinical backgrounds, experience and interests.
You can choose from any number of these subject areas for your L&Ls:
1. Back to basics, what is occupational therapy?
In this L&L we cover what occupational therapy is, how an OT is trained and where they gain their experience. We explore their diverse range of fields from the use of wheelchairs and other assistive technology, to pain management and coping with fatigue and anxiety, and can readily identify when an adaption of a client’s environment or provision of equipment can help them function more comfortably and effectively. We cover what OTs assess and how they base their recommendations. We then briefly discuss the various therapy techniques.
2. When to instruct an OT on your case?
An occupational therapist can be instructed to work with your client to achieve their maximum level of functional independence; this might involve a simple ‘one-off’ assessment and recommendations or may require more complex ongoing work. In this L&L we take your team through the clinical justifications for instructing an OT and also some practical tips on getting the recommendations approved by a funding party.
3. Specific Clinical Areas:
Our L&L’s can cover one or a mix of specific clinical areas, depending on your team’s interest and experience, including (but not limited to):
Seating and 24 hour postural management
This can involve advice on static or dynamic seating, powered and manual chairs, complex positioning for adults and children. This L&L covers the assessment, recommendations and equipment provision.
Vocational rehabilitation
This L&L examines how OTs can assist your clients looking to return to work post trauma, looking at job roles, compensatory techniques and coping strategies / techniques to overcome anxiety or fatigue.
Hand therapy
We explore what hand therapy is, as well as assessments and advice following trauma or burns. The L&L looks at our range of options including one to one treatment sessions, splints, minor aids and home programmes.
Housing and equipment
We cover an introduction to the range from simple advice on aids to help with daily life to property reviews for clients who are currently in rehab units or 24 hour care environments with a view to property purchase and adaptation. We inform your team on how we undertake major adaptations involving reviewing plans and working with architects and contractors all form part of this area of occupational therapy.
Rehabilitation
Rehabilitation covers brain and spinal injury, orthopaedic trauma and all injuries that are affecting function. We discuss how the OT will set client focused rehabilitation goals to be achieved through collaborative working with the client and therapist.
Paediatrics
In this L&L we cover how a paediatric occupational therapist working on a case management case will be able to assess and advise on complex paediatric cases including seating, housing, sensory, play, assistive technology, moving and handling.
Moving & Handling
This L&L looks at what a moving & handling assessment is, when to refer for one, what are the recommendations including equipment, advice, training, reviews and moving & handling plans.
4. What types of therapies does an occupational therapist undertake?
During a L&L we can inform your team on some examples of therapies an occupational therapist might undertake. Depending on individual circumstances, an occupational therapist might pursue one or more of the following activities with clients or their families and we can cover all or some of these during a session:
- Rehabilitating motor functions, restoring the ability to control movement, coordination and muscle power, including “fine” motor skills such as handwriting
- Developing improved cognitive skills such as concentration and memory, or compensatory strategies when these are impaired
- Educating clients and family members about particular conditions and their management of those conditions
- Monitoring and supporting pain management
- Teaching the client how to perform specific tasks differently in order to make them easier, and breaking complex tasks into manageable stages
- Recommending or providing devices or equipment that make activities easier, safer or more effective
- Assessing risks and difficulties likely to be posed by home or work environments, for example for wheelchair users or those at risk of falling, and recommending solutions
- Planning a weekly timetable of activities to boost a client’s engagement or productivity, improving their outlook and quality of life
- Providing advice on managing fatigue and tiredness
- Teaching financial management and budgeting skills in the face of changed circumstances
5. What’s the best way for case managers and occupational therapists work together?
During this L&L we cover various ways in which your team can work with The OT Practice to ensure the best outcomes for your clients. We cover when to instruct, how to refer, communication between both parties, ongoing progress, realistic expectations, reporting and billing.
6. What are the advantages in paying for an independent occupational therapist?
Independent therapists have usually accumulated extensive experience prior to undertaking private practice. They will have spent some years working in the NHS or social care, developing a good grounding in general therapy as well as in their areas of specialism.
During the L&L we can cover how private practice therapists are unconstrained by the bureaucratic processes often imposed on them in statutory sectors. Ultimately, this means that the therapist is better able to develop a comprehensive, individualised treatment programmes leading to the best possible outcome for the client.
For further information on The OT Practice Lunch & Learns or to book your session now, please contact us at enquiries@theotpractice.co.uk or call 0330 024 9910.
