If 2021, with Annual Conference and Occupational Therapy Week, was about setting markers in the sand for health equity, 2022 must be the year in which we begin to make progress. We know that we won’t sweep away embedded injustice just by hoping hard. But we think we can build on what we’ve learned, from the ideas people have shared with us and with the support of the occupational therapy community. We won’t succeed until everyone sees they have a part in delivering justice, and that it’s a ‘golden thread’ throughout everything we do.
We know that the ability of occupational therapy to tackle health inequity is constrained by many things. But there are two places where we should start. We are not always getting support to people who need it, and services aren’t reaching every community. And part of the reason for this is that our profession doesn’t reflect the people we should be reaching. Students and seasoned practitioners alike face barriers and exclusion from the day they express their interest in becoming an occupational therapist.
So, our work in 2022 must look both outwards and inwards. In doing so, we will need to work with experts by experience. And more will arise from the equity, diversity and belonging (EDB) work being led by Ketan Davé, Equity, Diversity and Belonging Manager. This includes building our capacity to not only understand EDB but how it impacts on the service we provide to our members.
In the first instance, across RCOT, we are looking to make progress in the following areas:
Roots of recovery
Our report aims to lead to a greater understanding within and outside occupational therapy of the contribution that the profession can make. We have activity planned in each of the four nations over the next few months, with parliamentarians and other decision makers.
Digital equity
With pressures on services to shift to digital delivery, we need to understand better the risks and benefits both to people accessing occupational therapy but also to professionals. How does digital open up opportunities for occupational therapists to practice? And how do we ensure that people accessing occupational therapy get the best support? We need to ensure that needs of occupational therapy are understood.
Advocacy toolkit
We use our networks across the four nations to raise awareness of how occupational therapy can address the social determinants of health. We want members to be able to make similar links with local and regional leaders. So, we will be working with members to produce a toolkit for people to use.
Language and messaging
Everyone wants fairness, but everyone understands fairness differently. We need to be able to counter poor understanding of health inequality and its effects.
Reaching everyone
We will share tools to enable service designers to understand who they are reaching and who they are not. The next steps will be to work with vulnerable communities and reflect their wishes in our advocacy and future service design.
Tackle inequity in pre-registration education
We will work with higher education institutions and practice-based learning providers to address inappropriate experiences and injustice for applicants and learners.
Develop appropriate resources to support professional development
We will start work on identifying the professional development needs in relation to EDB and explore how these can be met.
Campaign against injustice within workplaces
We will work with our partners to challenge discriminatory practice within the health and social care systems.
We won’t complete everything by the next Occupational Therapy Week. But with your support we will make progress. Watch this and other RCOT spaces for ways to get involved.