Small change, Big impact

Esther Dark, Occupational Therapist, Maples Integrated Team, celebrates small steps to recovery and the work of OTs

Occupational Therapy week in November is an opportunity for occupational therapists (OTs) nationwide to promote and celebrate their professional influence.

This year’s theme, Small Change, Big Impact, encapsulates the work of OTs, who are often engaged in implementing interventions that may appear insignificant to the uninformed observer, but which reap abundant beneficial health outcomes. Their superficially small, everyday acts are in reality the outworking of complex clinical reasoning, significantly impacting upon the individuals and communities they work with.

OTs are health and social care professionals, who are trained in assessing and attending to all aspects of an individual’s being, occupations and environment; details which may be neglected or missed by other professionals. Rather than being reactive, OTs are proactive - adopting a preventative approach and, as such, are successful in reducing unnecessary admissions, enabling individuals to live independently, motivating the unmotivated, improving wellbeing and adding life to years.

During my training, we received week-on-week teaching on how to assess an individual making a cup of tea. At first, I grappled to understand its significance, but I have discovered that my lecturers were actually teaching me an invaluable lesson. Assessing even the most seemingly innocuous everyday activity, such as making a cup of tea, involves a multifaceted assessment of an individual’s safety awareness, how they interact with their environment, their fine motor control, cognitive functions and creativity, to name just a few. With such training in picking up the minutiae, OTs are specialists in implementing and advising on person-centred strategies which attend to the whole person.

Now working in acute adult mental health at Highbury Hospital, I witness every day how the small changes – a smile, a listening ear, a change to the environment – can have a huge impact on a patient’s participation and engagement. I see my job a bit like completing a jigsaw – putting the story of an individual’s life together piece by piece. When experiencing mental health illness, getting out of bed or engaging even in the most basic occupations can seem overwhelming, so the only place to start is with the smallest step which is in front of us. With a non-judgmental and graded approach, OTs support patients to put one foot in front of the other, inching closer and closer to recovery.  

OTs provide not only all-important cost-effective savings through a prevention rather than cure mind-set, they also realise transforming effects. So, this November, let’s turn our attention to the small steps in recovery and celebrate the amazing work of OTs.