Personalisation & person centred services for OTs

Personalisation, when it is applied to individuals, is very familiar to occupational therapists: the person/client has the best understanding of his/her situation and problems and is also the person who knows best how his or her needs can be met

In a personalised approach, people are encouraged to make their own decisions, but are also given the information and support they need in order to do this. The philosophy of occupational therapy means recognising people as individuals. Occupational therapists are skilled in finding and tailoring individual solutions for people in different health and care settings and therefore align to the values of personalisation (SCIE 2010). Occupational therapists recognise and understand that everyone's lifestyle is different and how each person chooses to live is up to them. They will consider the importance of how a person's physical, mental and social needs will impact on their recovery process and help them to achieve the goals that are most important to them.
Personalisation for occupational therapists means:

• embracing the social model of disability
• emphasising the promotion of self-reliance and personal and community resources
• finding new and creative ways of meeting needs of service users
• ensuring individuals have information and advice to make informed decisions about the
• support they need to enter employment , optimising their independence and access within home and the community

 
A College-led session at the 2010 Annual Conference focused on personalisation. The presentation that follows is from the session and covers different characteristics of personalisation, evidence from personalisation in social care, the pilots and evaluation of personal health budgets in England and considerations for the future of occupational therapy and personalisation.
Download Personalisation by Dawn Stobbs
A workshop from the session allowed delegates to identify some of the opportunities and challenges posed by personalisation for people who use services and for occupational therapists.
 
Opportunities were describes as:

• increased transparency and responsibility
• being able to choose alternative interventions
• a shift in power and control towards service users
• having choice could improve standards
• improve links between health and social care
• being able to promote a more social perspective of health and wellbeing
• occupational therapists adopting a brokerage role and enabling decision making
• chance for the profession to be more imaginative and innovative.

 
Challenges were described as:

• getting enough information to make informed decisions
• choice for some may be confusing and need for safeguarding vulnerable people 
• skills needed to manage the money
• costs of services needs to be established
• need to market the profession so it is understood and purchased
• risk to health and social care services and workforce implications as alternative services are set up
• need for the profession to be involved early in developments

Reference
SCIE (2010) Personalisation: Implications for occupational therapists. Available at www.scie.org.uk.