National Occupational Therapy Week ‘OTs for Equity’ – A moment with Heads of Occupational Therapy, Leah Berry and Madeleine Paul
Last week, we marked National Occupational Therapy Week, 
where our Heads of Occupational Therapy, Madeleine Paul from our Children’s Hospital and Leah Berry from Forward Thinking Birmingham shared the importance of addressing the challenges that people face in regards to health equity. Birmingham is an epicentre of multiculturalism in the UK, which inspires our Occupational Therapists and support workers across our services.
Leah Berry, Head of Occupational Therapy Forward Thinking Birmingham said: “Occupational Therapists within mental health service identify and support in the breakdown of systemic and institutional barriers, enabling children and young people engage with their care plans and the most meaningful aspects of their lives. In our reflective sessions we considered social GRACES as a model for identifying potential barriers to health equity. This may include; Gender, Geography, Race, Relig
ion, Age, Ability, Appearance, Class, Culture, Ethnicity, Education, Employment, Sexuality, Sexual orientation and Spirituality . We have pledged to hold ourselves as individual’s accountable as well as challenging systems and processes in a solution-focused way working towards health equity for all. “
Both our Children’s Hospital and Forward Thinking Birmingham have been proactive in National Occupational Therapy Week through a series of sessions and workshops for their teams to keep the conversation going on our services can strive towards creating an enhanced experience with our hospitals.
Madeleine Paul, Head of Occupational Therapy at our Children’s Hospital said: “We work with colleagues within and outside the hospital to build the right environment and support for our patients and their families, to allow them to leave the hospital safely and enjoy life together as a family at home. We have been reducing the time that patients stay with us once they are fit for discharge but we recognise that there is continues to be more work to do, to improve health care equity for our children and young people. We recognise that every child and family is unique and our therapists, therapy assistants and students will continue to adapt their work with each person to meet their unique needs, so that we can achieve the best possible outcome.”
We’d like to say a big thank you to the Occupational Therapy team across our services for their continued support and ambitious attitude in helping us to continue to improve healthcare equity.