Welcome to our first issue of the year! In this edition, we focus on the impact RCOT has made in the past 12 months and provide insights into key projects for the year ahead.
This month’s features:
• Turn pages 12-17 for a recap of RCOT’s vision and strategic priorities.
• Karen Shearsmith-Farthing describes an improvement journey to develop standards for clinical practice in occupational therapy and dementia (pages 24-27).
• Hywel Dda University Health Board's 2021 service evaluation clarifies existing occupational therapy practices in dementia care across the Health Board footprint (pages 24-27).
• Ailsa Kellett shares the introduction of an occupation-based early intervention for people with dementia in her Dementia Wellbeing Community Team (pages 28-29).
• We look at how outsourcing remote assessments to an occupational therapy service provider has helped Hampshire County Council improve waiting times (pages 18-20).
• Explore what the new NHS guidelines for rehabilitation mean for your service, your work, or your patients on pages 21-23.
• In this month's 'Focus On,' Emma Vessey shares her personal story from living with a disability to becoming an occupational therapist.
And finally, to improve the overall sustainability, accessibility and reader experience of OTnews during 2024, we will be sharing new content in more agile, flexible, convenient print and digital formats, to enable members and partners to engage and contribute their expertise, stories and best practice in more interactive ways.
Please get in touch with Tracey Samuels, our Editorial and Design Manager, at editorial@rcot.co.uk if you’d like to share your story, service development or improvement journey, practice placement experience, or any other practice innovation, in a forthcoming issue in 2024. You can also read our issues online or in print.