Today is Allied Health Professions (AHP) Day and we are proud to celebrate our amazing AHP teams who provide essential services empowering people across both health and social care within Angus. AHPs play a vital part in treating, rehabilitating and improving the lives of patients. Examples of AHPs include dietitians, Occupational Therapists, Physiotherapists, Podiatrists, Speech and Language Therapists, Being an AHP provides an exciting career in so many areas – we would highly recommend it!
Meet our Occupational Therapy Psychiatry of Old Age Team
Who are we?
We are a team of Occupational Therapists (OTs) that work throughout the whole of Angus to ensure everyone has equal access to our brilliant and important OT services.
What is our role within Psychiatry of Old Age?
Our small team works between the community (in the community mental health teams) and covering the wards at the Susan Carnegie Centre at Stracathro Hospital. Our role as OTs includes working with individuals over the age of 65 who live with mental health conditions that prevent them from doing and engaging in activities (or occupations) that matter to them. We work alongside the individual (and families or carers) to identify areas in their life where support or interventions are needed. We use problem solving skills, creative and flexible thinking and graded activities to meet the often complex needs of the individual, enabling them to overcome barriers and work towards reaching their goals. This can optimise an individual’s independence, functional performance, increase their sense of wellbeing and improve a patient’s quality of life by promoting engagement in a range of different interventions and activities.
A bit about the team:
All the members of our OT teams come from different backgrounds of practice such as learning difficulties, physical health, case management, paediatrics and nursing. We therefore bring a variety of skills and knowledge, both to our little OT team and to the wider teams we work with. We each have different reasons for choosing the path to become an OT and to work in Psychiatry of Old Age, but we all share a similar passion for the wonderful profession that is Occupational Therapy.
