St Ann’s Hospice marks Occupational Therapy Week
St Ann's Hospice currently employs five Occupational Therapists in various roles across the organisation
Occupational Therapy Week takes place this week and aims to promote the incredible work being done to help patients manage their symptoms to live their best life possible.
An occupational therapist helps a patient to overcome challenges completing everyday tasks or activities, also called ‘occupations’
Occupational Therapy is vital at St Ann’s as one of the hospice’s core aims is letting the patient achieve what matters most to them. Occupational Therapy helps the patients live with their symptoms and illnesses. The hospice currently employs five occupational therapists who are enrolled in different departments.
The five occupational therapists are Rehab Team Leader Frances Brown, Head of Clinical Services, Emma Barclay, OTs Gemma Spedding and Jody Lee Jones, and member of the Lymphoedema team, Fiona Sanderson,
Lymphoedema is a chronic condition that causes swelling in the body’s tissues due to a build-up of lymph fluid
Fiona says being an occupational therapist (OT) with the Lymphoedema Team allows her to bring a different set of skills to the table.
“Lymphoedema teams are historically staffed by nurses and physios. As an OT I bring a different set of skills that enhance existing services,” she said.
I use some of my OT skills to help people self-manage their lymphoedema. This includes grading and adapting treatments, identifying goals to ensure treatments help individuals achieve these and being aware of how lymphoedema impacts on people's everyday life. Fiona Sanderson, Lymphoedema Team
Head of Clinical Services, Emma Barclay (pictured at the top of this story) is able to use her experience as an OT to help her in her role as Head of Clinical Services.
“OT is a holistic profession where you are trained to support people with physical and mental health needs. The skillset is therefore quite broad, and I’ve had the opportunity to work with different client groups and in different settings.
All this experience really helps when overseeing a broad range of clinical services in my current role. The core skills of an OT are activity analysis and environmental analysis. These are skills that help with a range of problem-solving activities at the hospice,” Emma said.
Occupational Therapy Week runs until Sunday, October 10 and over the course of the week, St Ann’s Hospice are promoting the incredible work of our occupational therapists. The team will also be attending at event at Stockport Council to promote the role and how it can help patients.
Gemma Spedding is also an Occupational Therapist for St Ann’s Hospice and got into the profession as she “wanted to help patients be as independent as possible in day-to-day activities and enable them to work towards achieving their personal goals”.
“I love being an OT. I love the wide variety of settings that you can work in. It’s a very rewarding career and I get to meet people from all walks of life,” she said.