Any Occupational/Speech Therapists here??

My mum is an Occupational Therapist working in housing for Local Government.

I am pretty sure she enjoys it, she is at manager level now so I think some of the politics and red tape get her down. She certainly finds it a challenge.

Not sure how much help that is.

I am neither but work with both in the same health team.

I have often thought about retraining as an OT, in the team i work in, our jobs overlap quite a lot, but what i like about the OT role is that it is very specific and i get given all sorts of crap to deal with (community nurse)

SALT i am not so sure about, i never realised until i joined this team umpteen years ago, how varied their role is actually, i just thought they assisted those with speach difficulties, but it is so much more eg, swallow assessments, peg feeding, nutrition etc.

Politics and red tape come with NHS and local government whatever level you are at and this is the one thing i detest about the job, honestly, some days i could cry (i dont)

Hi Bones

I am an OT, I work with older adults in a community rehab team. I love my job - the best bits are the patients! I get a lot of job satisfaction from seeing someone improve and become more independent. I hate the politics of the NHS and social work depts. Lots of red tape. Its a good job - good pay and benefits.

Rooted

Hi Bones

I am a Speech and Language Therapist - I work with children and love it!! However the politics involved in the job are another story!! If you want to ask anything in particular PM me.

I'm an OT too. My main speciality was Elderly rehab. The actual job is very rewarding, no day is ever the same and most of the patients are lovely, the others are real characters! I worked mainly with people who have functional issues but I also see people with memory problems with the occasional cognitive difficulty. I work in a department of 33 staff who also work in the hospice, stroke, neurology and care of the elderly in the community and ward based. The OT's in neurology and stroke deal mainly with people who have cognitive difficulties, but also with functional issues.

Whilst other professionals see us as the equipment providers, it is only a small part of our working lives. Alonside the interviews and assessments, we carry out group work with regards to falls, which is the hottest topic of all at present, fatigue management, relaxation and anxiety management etc. alongside the more traditional purposeful activity groups such as woodwork, gardening and craft.

We work closely with the Doctors, Physio's, Nurses and Social Workers. Occasionally we refer to the Diesticians, Psychologists and SALT. OT's tend to work 8.30-4.30, 5 days a week, although we have to do the odd Saturday. I think that we one of the few professions who don't work on a rota. The money is reasonable depending where you are in your career.

Since Labour was elected they have messed the NHS up in a big way! Over the past 3ish years we have seen so much new legislation and change. People are now expected to do more due to less staff, document any intervention at least twice and make up complete lots of statistics along the way. In comparison to maybe just 6 years ago, I was, before I got my job in management completing more paperwork than I ever have done before and seeing the patients less.

Why do I still do it? Well apart from having to pay my mortgage! I still enjoy my job. I still believe that we have a very valuable and essential role to play in assisting patients to become as independent as possible. I see patients quality of life improve, I see happier carers and I see patients return home and I feel personally fullfilled because I've made a difference to someones life.

My mum has been a speech therapist for over 30 years - she still does it so i guess she must enjoy it!! she has worked for the NHS (at Barts in London and other hospitals and schools ) for years when we were kids - she enjoyed that but as others have said i think the politics etc got in the way of the job sometimes.

she now works privately and has both regular patients who require long term therapy (eg people who have had head injuries, strokes or other speech/ swallowing problems) and gets referals from both the NHS and private consultants. she also works one day a week in a (private) specialist primary school seeing children with speech difficulties. she visits all her patients which can mean going into london or drivng around essex and can cover a fair few miles in a day but she can pick and choose when she works (although doesn't have the beneift for paid annual leave etc). She has worked with another speech theapist who have known each other for many years and they cover each other for holidays etc.

all in all i think she likes the job as its varied and seems fond of some of her paitients, she moans sometimes but then doesn't everyone moan about their job at some point!!

Yes the lack of weekend working and regular hours was a real attraction to me but depressingly our health board seem to be going toward 7 day working. Our team is starting to work weekends in December - only for 20 weeks!! Although it may be extended. This may be good for patients but selfishly I really don't want to have to do it. So I suppose what I am saying is that the regular hours thing may well change.

Our trust has looked into 7 day working but it requires quite a bit of funding for extra staff and the patients don't want it. They need a rest too! Too much rehabilitation can also be detrimental to the patient. Social Workers don't work weekends so getting home care at a weekend will never happen. It doesn't seem to greatly affect bed stays, so it doesn't save money. Well not enough for the extra funding of staff.

Sorry Rooted I thought you were the OP, so what I typed now sounds patronising. But you get the gist!

I wholeheartedly agree. I work in the community and can just imagine some of my patients faces if I turned up on a Sunday afternoon when they where about to have a snooze!

I think the management are hoping it will help with bed pressures if we can get people home at the weekend - but like you say issues with home care, transport etc will have to be sorted out for it to be effective. We have kind of agreed to do this for the winter so I suppose we will see what happens. Probably just miserable staff.

I've done what you're thinking about and I am currently 4 weeks into a 3 year degree at UEA in Speech and Language Therapy. So far, so good - I obviously can't say anything about the job as I haven;t done it (yet), but I can about applying, being a mature student (just an assumption!) etc, so feel free to pm me if you'd like.