This document discusses occupational therapy initiatives to help people with disabilities and mental health issues find and maintain employment. It describes programs like Individual Placement Support that help people find competitive jobs and the Acute Care Job Clinic that assists those receiving mental health treatment to retain their current jobs. The document also discusses the benefits of work for recovery and presents case studies of individuals who found employment through these programs.

1. Working Your Way
Through Recovery
Maria Hilditch, Specialist OT
Jan McGall, Lead OT
www.COT.org.uk

2. Drivers for the initiative
Where Are We Now?
 32% of people with a disability are in employment
 Mental and behavioural disorders make up the
largest diagnostic category for Employment and
Support Allowance in Northern Ireland
 Long-term unemployment and increased risk of
mental health problems
 Unemployment: increased risk of suicide
www.COT.org.uk

3. Drivers for the initiative
Recovery and Work
 Recovery: an ethos to guide practice and
also a personal journey for individuals
 Benefits of work in recovery
 Barriers to employment
www.COT.org.uk

4. Drivers for the initiative
 Dame Carol Black: Working for a Healthier
Tomorrow 2008
 The Review of Mental Health and Learning
Disability (Northern Ireland) June 2005: The
Bamford Report
 Recovering Ordinary Lives, The Strategy for
Occupational Therapy in Mental Health Services
2007-2017
www.COT.org.uk

5. Occupational Therapy:
Helping you to live life your way
www.COT.org.uk

6. Summary of Innovative Practice
BHSCT: Mental Health Key Service Changes
 Priority clinical focus: Vocational rehabilitation
and work
 Mental health OT’s as ‘vocational champions’
 Work is on the agenda!
www.COT.org.uk

7. Summary of Innovative Practice
Individual Placement and Support (IPS)
 Partnership with Action Mental Health
 Evidence-based supported employment model
 Roles of the Occupational Therapist and
Employment Specialist
 ‘Place then train’ model
 Job retention principles
www.COT.org.uk

8. Outcomes and Benefits
Individual Placement and Support (IPS)
 Case example: ‘Trevor’
 Case example: ‘Lisa’
www.COT.org.uk

9. Summary of Innovative Practice
Acute Care Job Clinic
 Individuals in employment in receipt of acute
mental health care (inpatient units, Home
Treatment and Acute Day Treatment)
 Focus: job retention
www.COT.org.uk

10. Summary of Innovative Practice
Acute Care Job Clinic
Holistic assessment:
 Job role and working patterns
 Job description
 Current work status, reasons for current absence and any previous
absences
 Disciplinary processes / precipitating issues of urgency
 Organisational procedures in managing sickness and absence
 Awareness the employer has with regards to nature of sick leave /
disclosure
 Involvement of Occupational Health, Welfare Officers, Trade Unions
www.COT.org.uk

11. Summary of Innovative Practice
Acute Care Job Clinic
 Current health situation: diagnosis, treatments and medication
 Current daily routine and overall level of functioning
 Personal circumstances: e.g. breadwinner in family /
dependents / debt
 Support systems
 Individuals attitude to returning to work and perceived barriers
 Strategies which have worked previously in returning to work
after a period of sick leave
www.COT.org.uk

12. Summary of Innovative Practice
Acute Care Job Clinic
Individualised interventions using Job Retention Principles:
 Liaison with employers
 Disclosure and attitudes in relation to employment
 Liaison with Occupational Health departments
 Liaison with other members of the multi-disciplinary team
 Assisting individuals in resolving perceived barriers to returning to
work
 Lifestyle balance
 Mental health promotion and keeping well
 Return to work plans and reasonable adjustments
www.COT.org.uk

13. Outcomes and Benefits
Acute Care Job Clinic
 Case study: ‘George’
 Case study: ‘Anna’
www.COT.org.uk

14. Summary of Innovative Practice
Exemplar Employer
 BHSCT: programme for employing individuals with
mental health issues into permanent, ‘real jobs’
within the Trust, including Mental Health OT service
 Support from Workable
www.COT.org.uk

15. Thank you for listening
www.COT.org.uk