Welcome to the January issue of OTnews!
Welcome to the first issue of 2025! We kick off the year with a Q&A with the World Federation of Occupational Therapists, to find out more about the development and launch of its Global Strategy for the Occupational Therapy Workforce, published late last year.
WFOT Global Strategy: World Federation of Occupational Therapists (WFOT) is collaborating with member organisations and partners to address the growing need for occupational therapy. It’s hoped that the OT community’s combined efforts result in an integrated and strategic approach to effectively strengthen the occupational therapy workforce worldwide. (pages 16-19)
Service improvement: Davinder Kaur, Clarissa Sørlie and Will Diaz explaining how Quality Improvement methodology is helping to reducing waiting lists for community therapies (pages 30-31)
Holistic practice: Jessica Robson and Mikaela Williams explain how the Ayrshire and Arran Improvement Foundation Skills (AAIFS) Programme has highlighted the importance of looking at an area of practice holistically, and how making small, targeted change can have a big impact. (pages 50-53)
Family Integrated Care: In our cover story, we hear from occupational therapist Amanda Lawes, who talks about introducing Family Integrated Care within the Singleton Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and her work to provide positive touch and skin to skin care for babies most in need. (pages 23-25)
Adventure therapy opportunities: Penny Weekes looks at occupational therapy’s role in working with young people and their families following acquired brain injury, as one part of the variety of opportunities available through an adventure therapy charity. (pages 20-22)
Dementia Care mapping: Erin Hardy gives a reflective account of the pros, cons and the potentials of Dementia Care Mapping in occupational therapy practice. (pages 42-44)
Inspirational OTs: This issue features two inspiring journeys to become OTs. Cate Chapman talks about her own disability and how OT intervention got her ‘back to being herself’, and Fungai Bvumbwe reflects on being diagnosed with a brain tumour during her studies and the road to graduation with a first-class honours degree, ‘against all the odds’. (pages 32-33)
Read on to discover these stories and more in this issue.
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Share your story, service development, improvement journey or practice placement experience by contacting Tracey Samuels, our Editorial and Design Manager, at editorial@rcot.co.uk.