Occupational Therapy service within the Department of Psychological Therapies

Annual Report 2004-2005

Current Staff:
Lucinda Lovesey Chaddeslode House
Wendy Barnett Dawley Centre
Vanessa Holt Dawley Centre

Primarily the occupational therapy service at Chaddeslode House is that of group work. In the last year this has gradually been expanding (within the limits of staff availability) and with some interesting developments. Dawley OT’s also do individual work and have a caseload of 12-14 each; Wendy offers Cognitive Analytical Therapy (CAT) with 2 additional clients.

Groups:
· Anxiety Management – a CBT based group with a psychological /educational /seminar approach. This continues to have long waiting lists and runs almost continually. Dawley have created information handouts and Chaddeslode is creating presentations on the interactive whiteboard.

· Anger Management – Referral rates have grown steadily and groups have run once or twice a year at Chaddeslode and continually at Dawley. We have a wide variety of people for this group and, once up and running, it is a successful group. There have been some problems with initial commitment and lack of uptake in the early weeks of each group but this has been improved by having smaller introductory groups enabling potential attendees to self select.

· Assertiveness – Like anxiety management this group runs back to back throughout the year and is mainly seminar style and with lively discussion. Also uses role play and other group techniques.

· Pathways – a group for women. We now have three groups running, one of which is a monthly group. Pathways is a self esteem / confidence building group which also spends time helping women overcome present life problems.

· Pottery – A longer term group helping people with enduring mental health problems improve communication skills and social confidence. This has been a gentle group for those who may struggle in more challenging groups.

· Finding your own Words – using creative writing exercises, people attending this group have described it as both a powerful and enriching experience. It focuses on past, present and future reflections and understanding of ourselves; how life events have shaped us, and encourages self actualisation for the future. This group runs at least once a year.

· Psychodrama also known as ‘Living in Society’– at Dawley – has now come to an end (May 26th last session) after running for over 2 years.

Of other interest:
Links with SCAT for the LEAP programme were successful. Occupational therapists facilitated a course to help people move on to work, voluntary work or college through a group called ‘Make your Experience Count’.
This group is still running periodically at Chaddeslode House and is adapted for those who want to build on social confidence.

New leaflets for Chaddeslode about each group have now been produced and are available on the website. Dawley also have a range of relevant leaflets.

Training / Supervision
We have had four OT occupational therapy students between us who have shared/ ‘split-placements’ with in-patient services and also with a Community Mental Health Team (North Shrewsbury). This has worked well. Support and guidance has also been offered to nurse students on placement at Chaddeslode. At Dawley Wendy supervises OT staff and has supervised a trainee TA counsellor.

A group workers’ supervision group was set up for those who were running groups in the community who wanted a forum to discuss group ideas and have on-going professional support. This continues to run monthly at Chaddeslode.

Development Plans
It is hoped that in the future we will be able to increase the OT staff within the department. If this were the case more groups would be able to run at Chaddeslode, Dawley and also in the community with outreach groups being more of a possibility to those who live in out - lying areas and to support the work done by CMHTs. An increase in occupational therapy personnel would also mean that the range of groups could increase to include more person - centred creative therapy groups, goal setting groups, or groups for young adults for example. As with most things change takes time.

At Dawley Wendy has been asked by an Employment Link Project to act in a consultative role to attend meetings and discuss work related issues for people with mental health problems. This commences in June 05.

Lucinda Lovesey
Senior I Occupational Therapist
Chaddeslode House