It's Occupational Therapy week - Jezz talks about how his OT role benefits patients

Posted by Devon Partnership Trust in News on 6th November, 2017

Jezz Scott talks about his role as an Occupational Therapist (OT) working as a High Intensity Therapist in IAPT- our Depression and Anxiety Service in Torbay.

“Working in this service is for me, a logical extension of my previous roles in other settings, most of which have been in mental health, but mainly in secondary services. These include working in psychiatric rehabilitation units, working in acute inpatient services and working in the Community Mental Health Team (CMHT). During my time in the CMHT, I did further training in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) through the University Of Plymouth.

“When the Trust reorganised mental health services nine or 10 years ago, I took the opportunity to move into primary care and worked for a year as a Senior Mental Health Practitioner in the Mental Wellbeing and Access Team. From there I was recruited into the new IAPT service in Torbay as a High Intensity Therapist and have worked in this team for eight years, alongside colleagues from differing backgrounds including OT, Nursing, Social Work and Psychological Therapies.

“As a High Intensity Therapist, my role is mainly one of carrying out CBT with a client group who predominantly have depression and/or anxiety disorders. We also work with people with long term physical health conditions and some eating disorders. Anxiety disorders include OCD, Social Phobia and Panic Disorder amongst others and also PTSD for which I have recently done additional training to carry out EMDR. In addition, we work with people who may not have PTSD but who are traumatised following childhood abuse.

“I would say that my role is instrumental in enabling the people I work with to overcome the psychological difficulties which they experience in order to be able to get on with their lives and do the things they want to do. Psychological therapy sits well with the ethos of occupational therapy as it is all about helping people to deal more effectively with the psychological barriers that get in the way of them doing normal activities and so helps address problems in thinking, feeling and behaving that interfere with daily functioning.

“I am proud to be part of a service that I feel is a very positive development in the evolution of mental health services and one that is well resourced to make a big difference to people, with an ease of access that enables individuals with common, debilitating problems to get effective help quickly. And yes, I would recommend this service to my friends and family!”

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It's Occupational Therapy week - Jezz talks about how his OT role benefits patients

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