Is influencing service commissioners one of your new year's resolutions?
If you are resolved to influence service commissioning by the end of January you will already have spoken with your emerging Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and the Health and Wellbeing Board (HWB) and planned how you will supply them with best practice information about your service to enable them to not only provide the best services for the patients and public but also to give the CCGs themselves effective and robust engagement procedures enabling their future authorisation.
Is your OT service meeting service commissioners' priorities?
In these challenging times, it is more important than ever that occupational therapists can understand, and respond to, the priorities of their service commissioners. A recent helpful publication by the King’s Fund (Imison et al 2011) highlights 10 priorities for service commissioners as they strive to deliver a sustainable healthcare system – and almost all of these priority areas offer the potential for occupational therapists to promote how their service delivery can contribute to achieving the overall objectives.
Members have access to a range of resources and evidence to enable them to influence service commissioners
Service commissioners are the key budget holders who allocate health and social care spend. By influencing their decisions you can ensure service users have increased access to occupational therapy services. You can also ensure increased allocation of resources to occupational therapy and more job opportunities for the profession.
Occupational therapists are the only AHP working in significant numbers in social service organisations
Disabled service users are supported to access and remain in their own homes. Occupational therapists work with them to adapt their environment in order that they can carry out their chosen activities safely in their own homes thus reducing the need for complex and costly care packages or admission to residential care (DH 2008).
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Occupational therapists are the only profession where activity (task, performance and/or process focused) is the main method of intervention
Occupational therapists work holistically and are outcome focused. They have multi-dimensional training that addresses the physical, psychosocial, sensory processing, developmental levels and needs of Children & Young People.
The importance of occupational therapy to people with long term conditions
Occupational therapists work in a large range of areas where their contribution to the safe management of long term conditions has significantly reduced the need for further health and social care interventions; enabling service users to have an increased independence and quality of life. (AHPF 2005)
