Practice Guidance for Occupational Therapy in A&E
At the NEC meeting the guidance document was again discussed. It was decided that a project lead would be needed to co-ordinate this work and lead a working party on the development of a guidance document. Following an email to all forum members, we are delighted to announce that Rachael Eckford has agreed to be that project lead. Rachael will now link with Gill Ward our R&D lead to initiate the work. We have had several members express their interest and commitment to be part of the working party. Your names have been sent to Rachael who will contact you as soon as the project is ready to go live again. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all those committed members who have been working on this prior to the step down of the forum lead. We would ask that these members please contact Catherina Nolan (catherina.Nolan@imperial.nhs.uk) if they wish to continue being on the working party.
The Forum continues to face challenges both with its organisation and its key activity of developing the Practice Guidelines for Occupational Therapy in A&E. Jackie Illes stood down at the AGM in November as Clinical Forum Lead and despite extensive efforts no formal nominations were received at the AGM or through advert of the vacancy thereafter. Please get involved so that the Forum can contribute to the development of the profession.
AIMS of the forum
The name of the Forum is Acute/Emergency Care rather than Rapid Response. This title was the one most preferred by those who expressed a preference. It was felt that it was broad enough, yet specific enough to encompass this area of practice. There may also be some scope in the future to incorporate those members who were part of the General Medical forum which disbanded last year.
The general feeling is that the Forum should be run on a regional basis. More work needs to be done on this to identify regional leads, support existing groups and set up new ones. Any thoughts on this or offers of help will be much appreciated.
The following was agreed as the Scope of the Forum
Service/Practice that is:
- Rapid, timely and time limited
- In response to a sudden change in function and safety
It can be:
- Health - primary care/secondary
- Community – social services/independent/private/voluntary
- Community Rapid Response teams
- Accident & Emergency/Urgent Care Centres
- Any associated in patient facility where the patient stay is time limited observation wards, medical assessment units, emergency admission units etc
- In-reach or Outreach
Practice that:
- Focuses on safety and risk management
- Involves limited intervention
- Identifies longer term needs and makes necessary referrals and/or recommendations.
Key outcomes for practice are:
- Contributing to the identification of the most appropriate way to meet patient’s immediate safe functioning needs
- Avoiding unnecessary admission/reduce length of stay for any inpatient/residential facility
- Ensuring safe return/maintenance in the community
