My progression from Newly Qualified to Band 6 in Primary Care - Occupational Therapy
Hi everyone, My Name is Melissa and I’m an Occupational Therapist by profession. To follow my OT journey on Twitter : mel_chieza.
Hello my name is Melissa and I am a band 6 Mental Health Practitioner working in four GP practices in East of England . My role involves supporting individuals with their physical and mental health within the primary care setting. I liaise with the GPs about supporting the transition of service users from secondary care mental health services enabling patients to be managed in primary care, providing regularly follow up clinics and monitoring to avoid re admissions where possible.
My journey in started in 2017 when I started as student Occupational Therapist at London South Bank university for three years. Whilst undertaking my BSc Honors in those years l completed a range of theory and practical lectures and assessments. In addition l completed 1000 placement hours which enabled me to gain experience in different specialties in different hospitals. This seems a lot but it was necessary for me to acquire the knowledge needed in becoming a qualified OT. In total these hours were covered over 4 placements. During my placement rotations I had a range of experiences from inpatient mental health Rehab, Acute Medical ward, paediatric child Development Centre. Unfortunately, Covid 19 hit which meant l could not go on placement. A virtual Mental Health Placement was created as a learning opportunity l was able to continue through this role emerging virtual placement In July 2020.
My graduation was deferred as the pandemic continued with several lock downs. I began to look for several jobs and was successful on a number of jobs which meant l had numerous options to choose. I settled for a band 5 rotation post which enabled me to gain experience a few months at a time in a specialty then allowed me to rotate to the next specialty. My first rotation journey began on the 14th of December 2023 in Specialist area of Learning disabilities. Unfortunately, England was back into another lock down within 48 hours I reverted back to virtual working which meant l was working from home in a new job with very limited contact with service users face to face as they were classed as clinically extremely vulnerable. My role was to assess patients and provide aids and adaptations so they could still complete activities of daily living independently . However, due to covid 19, this was not possible so I had to be creative when assessing service users in this way for example rapport building would take longer as service users may not be non-verbal or verbal . So I would advise service user to bring something special to show me during the teams call so I could establish a rapport and know them better .
Assessment had to be tailored and adapted to what the individual needs. I remember conducting a cooking assessment on Microsoft teams with service users. In preparation of this I would create support sheets so the family, support workers and carers knew what to do to help the service user on the day. This helped to ensure I could get an accurate picture of what the service users capabilities.
Fast forward September 2021, I rotated to a new service known as the Crisis Resolution and Home Treatment ( CRHTT) which was a day service where service users would come for the day . This rotation was face to face which was exciting as I had the opportunity to build on the skills I missed out on in the first rotation. My role in this service was to work with service users who were suffering from mental health illness and encourage them to engage within the community and prevent hospital admission . We would support service users by educating them on the recovery approach techniques and be socially inclusive through educational learning to support mental health recovery .
Alongside that I had the opportunity to work one day a week within inpatient mental health with service users who were aged 18-65 who were acutely unwell and needed admission to inpatient services . My role in this service was to complete occupational therapy assessment and treatment interventions for the specified service user group, to carry a caseload as a member of the MDT and to the develop the occupational therapy service provision within the setting .
Throughout each rotation my confidence and resilience grow, I started completing my preceptorship competency which is something every band 5 did in our trust. I started undertaking training for supporting student placement who did a placement in our service and had a privilege of supporting two students alongside my Head of OT .
One evening I wrote a tweet about progression to Band 6 on Twitter and the feedback I received was amazing. I took a leap of faith and applied for a range of jobs. I had an interview in August 2022 and I was shortlisted for an interview. My initial thoughts were that I did not provide enough detail in the interview. However, I took the offer and started in January 2023 and moved into the world of Primary Care . I was the first Occupational Therapist they had in the team and the rest of my colleagues come from a nursing background. My initial thoughts at the start of taking on this role was that I will not use my OT skills as much, however this has been the opposite experience as I am being creative and flexible in the way I assess the patient. I am really starting to have more fore sight in terms of career progression as I see a range of patients who may have mental health needs but also other co-morbidities as well . My reason for joining future Frontline was to raise more awareness about the role of Occupational therapy and that we do not just work in one service such as the hospitals we are seeing a range of environment and services that needs specialist input from us we massively contribute to the Multi disciplinary team.
Where I am Now and Where I want to be
I’m still working in primary care as a mental health liaison practitioner and still using my Occupational Therapy Skills every day, I don’t have plans yet to leave. I am passionate about Diabetes and Occupational therapy and keen to pursue some research in this area as there is limited evidence to support the role of Occupational Therapy in Diabetes management . I am keen to do some guest lecturing in the future around my experiences of someone living with a long- term condition. I would hope in the upcoming months support a OT student on placement within the primary care network and see any other opportunities that may come my way .
More details about my role please see link below :
https://elizabethcasson.org.uk/masterclasses/occupational-therapy-in-primary-care/
