This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Deacon's Vision For Modernising Occupational Therapy
22/03/2000
Health services must be driven by the needs of those using them rather than organisational bureaucracy, Scottish Health Minister Susan Deacon said today.
Addressing a conference aimed at improving the delivery of occupational therapy services, Ms Deacon said:
"We must ensure that organisational barriers between health, social care and housing agencies do not affect the way we deliver services.
"I find it wholly unacceptable that services which people need to enable them to live their lives in the mainstream of society can sometimes be made worse by debates or disagreements about whose job it is to do what.
"When people are sick or struggling to cope with a physical disability, or when they may be at their most vulnerable, they are not interested in who provides the service that they need. They just need the service. Agencies must work together, agree protocols, give information to one another, have clear lines of communication and, above all, work closely with the person using the service and his or her carer to help that person's rehabilitation.
"If we help people and those closest to them to manage their condition well, we can reduce all sorts of restrictions on their lifestyle and we can reduce their isolation within their communities."
BACKGROUND
1. Occupational therapists support patients to recover from, or adjust to, changed circumstances arising from an illness, accident or disability.
2. The Health Minister made her comments while addressing the first occupational therapy services conference to bring together representatives from the Scottish Board of the College of Occupational Therapists, the Association of Directors of Social Work and senior officials in the Scottish Executive.
3. The Scottish Executive recently appointed it's first occupational therapist adviser who will have a key role in evaluating occupational therapy services across Scotland.
News Release: SE0798/2000
22 Mar 2000