Day in the Life

Kirsty Thomas Kirsty Thomas works as part of a multi-disciplinary team for a charity-led hospital in Wales

A day in the life of... Each month... we talk to a different occupational therapist to see what a typical day is for them and explain a little more about their role. Thomas Kirsty

I’m an occupational therapist working for a leading charity in Wales - Adferiad Recovery at a unique charityled hospital for those recovering from mental illness.

I spend a morning working with the nurse in charge to organise a morning meeting. The meeting enables patients and staff to understand what’s on offer, what resources are available that day as well as who’s cooking lunch and supper. We also consider any responsibilities that need attending, such as who needs to clean their room, what support a person needs or whether they need to access the laundry. I then spend some one-to-one time offering reviews or assessments to patients, this could include community assessments too. Recently, I was reviewing a lady’s progress from swimming, she’d been swimming weekly to build her physical strength as well as selfreporting the mental benefits of her activity. In the review she spoke of her desire to sea swim. The next day a nurse colleague and I were in the sea swimming side by side with her to achieve her goal of floating in the sea again! I also spend time writing reports and recommendations for a person’s discharge from hospital.

Being the only occupational therapist can be tough. However, I have a very understanding nursing team who understand my role in a person’s recovery. I hope to upskill the whole recovery practitioner and peer members in occupational focused assessment and intervention under my supervision. I am also clinically supervised by an OT based at the university closest to me. This link also gives me opportunities to take students.

I am not restricted to the constraints of a large organisation and I have the luxury of working closely with people over a long period of time. This pace enables me to see a person’s recovery first hand compared to previous acute assessment roles where often patients are discharged to their community team to continue their recovery.

The second-best thing in my role is working with my amazing team, who make me laugh and smile every day. Everyone I work with in the unit is so passionate about what they do and I think that’s what makes my job role so enjoyable.

You can follow Kirsty on Twitter at @kirstyot.