Sheffield Occupational Therapy Clinical Academics Meeting

Last week a number of occupational therapists from South Yorkshire gathered together for a “Mock Royal College of Occupational Therapists Annual Conference” #COT2017.

Sheffield Occupational Therapy Clinical Academic Network (SOTCA): First open meeting a huge success!

Laura Di Bona

A group of occupational therapists based in and around Sheffield have developed a network to advance occupational therapy knowledge and practice. The network, SOTCA, aims to improve outcomes and experiences for service users of a diverse range of occupational therapy services across the region. SOTCA hopes to achieve this through forming cross-organisational collaborations and providing peer support to occupational therapists trying to improve practice or develop a clinical academic career. It is open to any occupational therapist who shares our aims, whether you are a student, newly qualified, highly experienced, retired or anything in between.

SOTCA’s first open meeting was held on 13^th October 2016 and attended by seventeen occupational therapists from seven organisations. It was hosted by Colette Fegan at Sheffield Hallam University who treated us to a tour of their innovative teaching facilities. The meeting was then used for networking, forming collaborations and peer support. The amount of knowledge and enthusiasm in the room was amazing, so we certainly have plenty to offer each other. The atmosphere was energising, optimistic and conversation flowed long after the meeting was due to finish! Old friends caught up and new friendships were formed. Future goals of the group were set and these include developing collaborations and links (especially between practice and research), learning from each other and improving practice.

The next meeting will be in January 2017. If you are an occupational therapist who would like to join our network, please contact Laura Di Bona (l.dibona@sheffield.ac.uk).

At the January meeting we plan to share some of our clinical academic / occupational therapy research experiences and journeys, do get in touch with Laura if you would like to share.

Some recommendations from the meeting:

• Contact Health, Advice and Information (CHAIN) Network. CHAIN is a successful online mutual support network of people working in health and social care. Sign up to the subgroups relevant to you at : http://www.chain-network.org.uk/chain/subgroup_resources.html

• College of Occupational Therapists Research and Development Bulletin. If you are a BAOT member and wish to receive these bulletins email Lesley Gleaves, R&D Administrator (lesley.gleaves@cot.co.uk).  

• Council for Allied Health Professionals Research. If you would like to be added to their mail list please contact Stephanie Portier  hwbsjp@exchange.shu.ac.uk, with your full name, email address, profession and which region you are based in. There is a forthcoming event entitled “How to be an AHP clinician who does research”. Thursday, 3rd November 2016 6-9 pm. Sheffield Hallam University.

 Written by Laura Di Bona

Telehealth and Telecare Newsletter: Edition 4

The recent TaCT theme of the National Institute for Health Research, Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care Yorkshire and Humber (NIHR CLAHRC YH) newsletter has been published (see link below)

TaCT Theme Newsletter Issue Four, May 2016

The aim of the TaCT theme is to harness new technologies to support health and social care in the community and to improve the quality of life and in-dependence of the growing number of people living with long-term conditions and disability. Our team comprises researchers from universities, the NHS and care organisations across Yorkshire and Humber and together we are carrying out projects re-searching, developing, evaluating and implementing innovative technology supported interventions. Our aim with this newsletter is to keep you up to date with progress in the theme and to give a taster of the projects we are involved with.

More information about the theme can be found on our website
http://clahrc-yh.nihr.ac.uk/our-themes/telehealth-and-care-technologies

Our Theme Lead is Professor Mark Hawley, please contact Lauren Powell (l.a.powell@sheffield.ac.uk) if you have any queries regarding the newsletter and Dr Jack Parker (j.parker@sheffield.ac.uk) for TaCT Theme queries.

Claire and Paul share Insights into telehealth and care technologies at Galway Conference

Claire Craig presented some of the findings from InTaCT at the 1^st international conference of COTEC and ENOTHE in Galway, Ireland. She spoke particularly of the most recent element of the research undertaken by Paul and Claire which has focused on health inequalities. The presentation was well received by delegates with invitations to present the work in Germany and the Netherlands.

Claire followed this by co-facilitating a workshop seeking to establish an International Think Tank around Social Inclusion. The Think-Tank envisioned by Sarah Kantartzis, Hanneke Van Brugen and Nick Pollard saw over 70 delegates from 15 countries come together to discuss ways of reducing health inequalities. Claire and Paul have both contributed to a book entitled Occupation based approaches for social inclusion which describes some of the methods of engagement used in research undertaken in their theme of InTaCT. This will be published in 2017 by Whiting and Birch.

Strong CATCH / RAT / CLARHC representation at the Yorkshire and Humner Allied Health Professional Conference, 2016

Prof Sue Mawson chairing the panel session about funding.

There was a strong CATCH / RAT / CLARHC representation at the  Yorkshire and Humner Allied Health Professional Conference, 2016 on Friday 4th March, 2016. Attendees included CATCH Centre Manager, Simon Butler, Prof Pam Enderby, Prof Gail Mountain, Dr Rebecca Palmer and Mark Jayes and Prof Sue Mawson.

Prof Enderby and Prof Mountain gave oral presentations, Prof Mawson chaired a panel discussion and Dr Palmer took part in another panel session.  

To find out more about the conference, please click here.

Prof Pam Enderby speaking about integrating research into practice.

Simon Butler, CATCH Centre Manager, exhibited on behalf of CATCH.

Spreading the word about Telehealth

RAT group researchers Claire Bentley and Dr Jack Parker were invited to Sheffield Hallam University to deliver a workshop for district nursing students, introducing them to Telehealth and issues around its use.

The session included demonstrations of different healthcare technologies (Telemonitoring, an app for lung disease management) and a Question & Answer segment with Telehealth nurse Andrea Hague, in which she spoke about her experiences of delivering the service and the benefits and issues she has experienced.

Feedback from the students was very positive. This was the second workshop with Sheffield Hallam nursing undergraduates, and it is looking like an effective way to break down the awareness barrier among healthcare professionals around healthcare technologies.

Written by Claire Bentley (c.bentley@sheffield.ac.uk) and Dr Jack Parker (jack.parker@sheffield.ac.uk).

 

HS&DR - 08/1819/214: The Impact of Enhancing the Effectiveness of Interdisciplinary Working

Why are we asking for your actionable tools?

A project is being carried out at Sheffield Hallam University in conjunction with colleagues from CLAHRC YH, and is funded by NHS England to develop an online repository for actionable tools for active dissemination and implementation of research findings into practice. They are currently working with knowledge mobilisation experts linked to CLAHRC YH, NHS England,  practitioners and those responsible for professional development to derive a working definition of 'actionable tools', and are seeking out research outputs which could potentially be actionable tools. They will consult a governance team with end-user representation, to determine which candidate tools fulfil the criteria to be considered 'actionable' and hence can be included on the online repository.

The RAT Group have put forward some NIHR funded research outputs to be included.:

This paper is firmly directed at application of the principles: The ten principles of good interdisciplinary team practice.

The following is a resource that has been designed and used as an actionable tool:

InterdisciplinaryManagement Tool - Workbook (this is appendix #2 on the project page).

We have published an evaluation of the implementation of the tool:

Qualitative evaluation of the implementation of the Interdisciplinary Management Tool: A reflective tool to enhance interdisciplinary team work using Structured Facilitated Action Research for Implementation (SaFARI)

This project:

Secondary analysis and literature review of community rehabilitation and intermediate care: an information resource

Has a full report in the NIHR journals library.

Here are the chapters:

• Objective 1. To identify those patients most likely to benefit from intermediate care and those who would be best placed to receive care elsewhere
• Chapter 1. Which patients are most or least likely to benefit from intermediate care?
• Chapter 2. What factors are associated with increased hospital admissions for patients using intermediate care services? 
• Chapter 3. Factors predicting admission to institutional care among intermediate care service users 
• Chapter 4. What factors are associated with increased risk of mortality for intermediate care patients? 
• Objective 2. To examine the effectiveness of different models of intermediate care
• Chapter 5. What team-level factors are associated with the greatest benefits for patients in terms of health status? 
• Chapter 6. What is the cost-effectiveness of different models of care? 
• Objective 3. To explore the differences between intermediate care service configurations and how they have changed over time
• Chapter 7. How have intermediate care services changed over time? 
• Chapter 8. How have referral patterns changed over time and what is the relationship with patient outcomes? 
• Objective 4. Service toolkit
• Chapter 9. Development of a service toolkit to guide providers and commissioners of services

Each of these could provide evidence to inform actions for commissioners and service providers.

Notably, the NHS Benchmarking Network, National Audit of Intermediate Care (NAIC) (currently in its 5th year) has been using some of the recommendations from Objective 4 (especially the Therapy Outcome Measures), and automated data collection methods, which were pioneered as a result of continuation of this work.

Design win at BIN Porto

This is the team presenting to the
delegates for their consideration for the ‘people’s
choice’ award. Luis is demonstrating the
prototype on the right of the Podium

The Business Innovation Network (@BIN) is a collaboration between the University of Sheffield, Porto University (UPorto), and São Paolo University (USP)- with an ever widening network of associations and organisations. The focus of the network events is to build productive relationships across Europe and South America that focus on translating knowledge into action…both in business and academia.

Cardboard prototypes that we made of the idea

CLAHRC YH was well represented at this year’s event in Porto by the TaCT design Researcher Dr. Matt Dexter, who was invited to lead a teaching seminar for Masters Design students, and to lead an international team of designers, engineers, and a ‘design partner’ (a person with lived experience of disabilities) as part of the 24hr Design Challenge during BIN@Porto.

The 24hr Design Challenge format was developed by Professor Julia Cassim of the Design Lab, Kyoto Institute of Technology and the challenge was organised by Lígia Lopes and Cecília Carvalho (co-founders of Design Includes You Association), and facilitated by Julia Cassim. The challenge involved four teams competing to produce an idea that would impress an interdisciplinary panel of discerning judges, as well as the delegates of the networking event!

This is us hard at work! The lady in the red
glasses is Prof. Julia Cassim of the Kyoto Design Lab

Matt’s team was comprised of a talented group of designers, ranging from Masters students to experienced creatives with many years’ experience. Luis Vaz, the design partner had lost the use of his legs along with having reduced mobility and grip strength in his left hand. Collaboratively the team produced a prototype for an attractive satchel that met the unique needs of wheelchair users, whilst also providing innovative solutions for users of all types. The bag was designed to be beautiful- and the team was incredibly well supported by an experienced fashion designer (Abhishek Chatterjee) who was a designer at a major fashion house. The bag was dubbed Karri, and the team produced a paper prototype in two colour ways.

Team photo

Team Karri scooped both awards, impressing the judges and the assembled attendees of BIN@Porto 2015. The event was a great opportunity to disseminate the design work done in the TaCT theme to an international audience- as well as discussing issues around this with the talented Masters Students in design at UPorto.