See highlights from day one of Annual Conference 2021.
Occupational therapists’ skills and experience are needed more now than ever before, says RCOT Chief Executive Steve Ford
In closing the hugely successful 44th RCOT Annual Conference – held virtually for the first time ever – Chief Executive Steve Ford’s overall summary of the two days was: “Wow! What a conference.”
Just three months ago, Steve joined the Royal College and set himself the challenge of having “100 conversations in 100 days” with members - #TalktoSteve - and he used the opportunity of the final plenary to share his reflections on what he has learned from members so far, and to share his new and exciting vision for the future of the organisation.
“There is a real sense that now is the time for occupational therapy,” he said proudly. Recognising that all of the issues and challenges facing society today, and the policy drivers in all four nations, are in all the areas where occupational therapists work, he said: “All the stars are aligning”.
“The key part of leadership is making sure that you are regularly listening to your community,” he stressed.
His first reflection was around understanding the breadth and diversity of the profession. “It's been amazing to see the impact of occupational therapy in so many areas,” he said. “But that's part of the challenge. People talk about the constant and exhausting task of defining occupational therapy...there is a real sense that it is easier for other professions to describe what they do.”
His second reflection was that “occupational therapists love their job!” He said: “I've seen so much passion and enthusiasm; people want to be involved [with RCOT] and they are cautiously optimistic about the future.”
But he said in his third observation, “people feel like the underdog, other professions are better at grasping the opportunities.” Other important issues that have become clear during his 100 conversations include that “there are so many impressive leaders who are influential in their local systems, but they don’t always feel connected with or supported by the Royal College”.
“Is RCOT ahead of the game?” he mused. “Are we standing alongside them, or lagging behind?”
When it comes to research, he said that the profession needs a stronger evidence base to position itself and its interventions. He noted that the profession is changing, saying “newer recruits are more confident and demanding” and he made it clear that the equality, diversity and inclusion agenda is widely seen as vital.
Finally, he shared some detail on a new strategy and direction for the professional body posing the questions: Are we clear what the opportunities are over the next 10 years? What do we want to achieve? Where does leadership for the profession sit? How can RCOT bring everyone together around the table?
The new strategy is all about “how we present ourselves” he said. It’s about “how we connect everyone up so that you feel your voice and contribution is really important”. It’s also about the membership offer and being relevant to the whole occupational therapy community.
“How do we grasp the biggest opportunities? How do we get occupational therapy on the front foot?” he asked.
“I'm really excited about the future,” he said in conclusion. “Occupational therapy is a fantastic profession. Occupational therapists' skills and experience are needed more now than ever before.”
There is no ‘magic bullet’ to happiness, delegates told, but with time and effort you can re-train your brain
In a plenary presentation on Thursday 1 July at Annual Conference 2021, Professor Bruce Hood explained his work on establishing the highly successful university course, ‘The Science of Happiness’ and why we can all benefit from developing better strategies to cope with adversity.
Explaining some of the theory and neuroscience involved, Professor Hood provided delegates with some valuable practical advice about how to improve mental wellbeing.
He shared three techniques to coach yourself through a crisis: psychological distancing (short term); learned optimism (medium term); and mind control (long term).
Phycological distancing, he explained, is about looking at your problem or worry from a non-first-person convention rather than the first person – this works because emotional regulation enables you to turn up or down your emotions appropriate to a situation.
“Using non-first-person language makes stressful situations less stressful, more of a challenge and less threatening,” he asserted.
Learned optimism is about training people to become more optimistic and hopeful. He talked about research on the way people process and react to things, and looked at the concept of pessimism versus optimism.
“You might think being optimistic is the best way to be,” he said. “You do need to find a balance – you don’t want to be overly optimistic so that you don’t take responsibility for anything going wrong. You have to recognise when you are at fault, otherwise you won’t ever get better.”
But learning to become more optimistic when facing problems is generally a good thing, he acquiesced. There are techniques to train yourself to be more optimistic and he focused on the ABCDE technique: Adversity, Belief, Consequences, Dispute, and Energise.
He explained that it is about stepping out of the negative framework into a positive framework. “Invariably, even in the worst situations you can always find something to be positive about,” he exclaimed.
The final technique is based on mind control, or more accurately, about meditation. He told delegates that ‘mind wandering’ goes on all day, and that these thoughts are generally quite negative.
“Mind wandering is associated with unhappiness,” he said. “[But] it is possible through meditation to shift away from habitual mind wandering and to a place of being more present centred and happier.”
He ended his presentation with the general point that developing mental strength and wellbeing “is a little bit like physical exercise; don’t expect that there is a simple magic bullet or simple way of achieving it”.
He said: “In the same way that when you want to build up physical strength, you don’t walk into the gym and pick up the heaviest weight, What's better is to take things gradually, and this is true of happiness activities as well.
“Do them on a regular basis over time. The more regularly you do it, they will accumulate and you will eventually build up your mental strength.”
Occupational therapists urged to “take action now” to deal with the global climate and health crisis
Joel Reynolds, RCOT Professional Adviser, in an RCOT Insights session on sustainability, reminded delegates of the realities of the current global climate crisis, before challenging the occupational therapy profession to think about the action they can take to become more sustainable.
Citing The Lancet’s work on climate he said: “Climate change threatens to disrupt our health systems and undermine the past 50 years of gains in public health, so urgent action is required by all of us in order to adjust and take steps to reduce our carbon use.”
“But we can be emboldened to do more as a profession,” he said positively. Noting that the greatest impact of climate change will be felt most by those living in poverty, and that rural and urban areas are impacted equally, he said the climate crisis is now a health emergency.
“No region, country or community is immune to the health impacts of climate change, and that means it’s a universal responsibility of all occupational therapists, no matter where you work,” he exclaimed.
“Luckily there is a lot we can do,” he went on, referring to a United Nations call to developed nations to “align the recovery from the pandemic with our response to climate change, giving us the chance to predict health, promote a sustainable economy and protect our planet”.
Sonia Roshnik, who works for the organisation Occupational Therapy Without Harm, reiterated the key message that everybody has a role to play in this agenda: “What we are talking about is a real system transformation across all of healthcare,” she said. “Some of that is about models of care, utilising telehealth…we are going to need to dig deep to find solutions. I am counting on every one of you to support that transition.”
Urging everyone to take action now and reduce their carbon emissions, she said she hoped everyone would embark on the journey, as “it is urgent that we deal with this climate and this health crisis” immediately.
And Carolyne Hague, Principal Occupational Therapist with Devon County Council and previously AHPO Clinical Fellow with the National CAHPO Team, concluded with a clear call to action for the profession.
“Public health and prevention directly corelates with environmentally sustainable services,” she said. “Reducing the impact on public health and the environment, will save money and eventually help us to get to net carbon zero,” she exclaimed.
“AHPs and occupational therapists work in a sustainable way within an unsustainable system – we really do need to promote the value of how we work.”
Professor Sir Michael G Marmot calls on government to “put a fair distribution of health and wellbeing” at the heart of its policies
In the opening plenary session on day two of Annual Conference 2021, Professor Sir Michael G Marmot, Director of the Institute of Health Equity and UCL Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, called on the government to put a fair distribution of health and wellbeing at the heart of its policy.
Comparing the statistics on life expectancy going back to 1980 up to 2010, he told delegates that poorer people do have worse health than everyone else, but the real message is that the less the deprivation, the longer the life expectancy.
In stark figures he demonstrated that for over 100 years, life expectancy had been consistently improving “for about one year for every four years for women and for men”, but between 2010 to 2011 there was a break in the curve and the rate in increases slowed dramatically – “just about ground to a halt,” he said.
So, what happened in 2010? Looking at other countries’ annual life expectancy in weeks, between 2011 to 2017, Professor Sir Michael concluded that the UK had the slowest life expectancy improvement of any rich country, apart from Iceland and the US.
Asserting that “we had not reached peak life expectancy”, he suggested that “something went on” here “that didn’t happen in this time in all of these other countries”.
So, what happened after 2010? “The government’s ambition was to roll back the state”, he said, “and by golly they did it.” Before the pandemic, public sector expenditure went down year on year, in a regressive way, life expectancy was stalling, inequalities increasing and life expectancy for the poorest people was falling, he noted.
“And in the UK, that slowdown in life expectancy was nearly the slowest of all rich countries…I think of health as a measure of society’s success. If health is improving, society is improving…and then during the pandemic, where we had the highest excess mortality, what’s the link between these two?”
Professor Sir Michael pointed to four culprits: poor governance and political culture; social and economic inequalities increasing; reduction in spending on public services – we are ill-prepared; and we were unhealthy coming into the pandemic.
Reflecting on his diagnosis of why, as a country, we have done so badly pre-pandemic and in our handling of the pandemic, he said all four of these levels need addressing. “My overall recommendation is to put a fair distribution of health and wellbeing at the heart of government policy,” he urged.