Occupational Therapists in the Rapid Intervention and Treatment Team work across our Care Home Liaison and Home Treatment Team.
Within Care Home Liaison, we often work with older people with Dementia who present with challenging behaviour. This challenging behaviour can sometimes be due to a lack of meaningful activity in the person’s life. Care homes often put on group activities, but we can go in and do person-centred work with the person, their family and friends, and care staff. This allows us to really find out what is important to the person and learn about how they used to spend their time. We also look at how Dementia effects the person’s ability to participate, and provide advice around how to support the person. To us, creativity isn’t just about the finished product, it’s about the enjoyment of the process.
In our Home Treatment Team work, we work with older adults in mental health crisis at risk of self-harm or suicide. Older adults sometimes experience a loss of identity and isolation, as well as a lack of meaningful activity. We can help people to engage with their community and connect with others, for example at groups like ‘Knit and Natter.’ If a person has physical health problems such as hearing or sight loss, or arthritis, we can adapt activities to help them engage in their favourite hobbies. We have a good supply of resources that we can take with us, including things such as larger knitting needles, pencil grips, etc.
The biggest myth about Occupational Therapy in older adults is that all we do is provide mobility equipment! We do a lot of this, but we also focus on helping the person to find meaning in their life, either by re-discovering their favourite activities, or by experiencing something new and exciting! You’re never too old to have fun!
Thank you Sofie Fowler for sharing your story.