Well, wasn’t @Keirwales the most bone idle @IamAnOT_COVID19 host yet? Let’s not have him back again. If he’d not been on holiday and trying to run a publicity campaign, he might have told us about a typical week….

So a typical week for me is a very small caseload of people who self harm and feel suicidal who have either been in or in danger of going to an OOA placement. @HoppyPelican is a fantastic Independent Lived experience practitioner and we…

…use our clinical and lived experiences to support the person and the system around them to avoid a placement. This looks like 2 contacts a week for the person, phone contact when they need it and support to their community/inpatient teams and their family.

For all the #NoOOA stuff I’ve been doing this week, there are some really progressive CCGs who are fed up of their experience of specialist placements and are eager to explore alternatives. Where the local service doesn’t have the capacity se provide the therapy and support…

…but we also do training, and consultancy to help people think about clinical issues they are stuck with. Outside of that main work I’ve got a small practice of people I see over zoom/phone and I’m absolutely loving doing tribunals for people detain in or at risk of going to…

…placements. Finishing in the NHS in April has meant I can write more and so while this week has been all about promoting the lancet article I co wrote (Can we see it again? Oh, ok then) https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/article/PIIS2215-0366(20)30148-6/fulltext

Now I never thought I’d be able to get the article into the mainstream media but the Sunday Express wrote a piece on it. @JuliaScottRCOT told use to be loud and proud and this week I’ve felt like I’ve had a megaphone strapped to my face…

…So I left the NHS just as lockdown started which meant all the raining I had planned vanished, but luckily the clinical work has grown so I won’t starve this week. We had periods of having to do everything over zoom which was certainly not ideal but it was the best we could do

…its really difficult with the normal support people would have significantly reduced due to people having to isolate. It makes things that bit more challenging for everyone…

…I’ve got a few more things I’m working on with the writing, trying to be active within @BIG_SPD and I supervise a few OTs who work with a similar client base to me.

So that is what a normal week would have looked like. If you’re curious, ask away either here or @keirwales

And because I feel like this week was a success…. I spent a lot of my career holding back in case it looked like I failed. I lost a lot of opportunities that way. This week involved a risk that paid off. Be loud and proud #OT #ValueofOT

Right, glad he’s gone. Hopefully next week’s person will do it properly.