Susan Allen

Background. The long-term impacts of DCD are well established, with evident risks of social exclusion(1), yet support for the social-emotional sequelae of DCD remains under-investigated. The delivery of an Occupational Therapy (OT) DCD Activity Club may underpin a research protocol exploring the impacts of a socially suitable activity club for children with functional motor difficulties.

Methods-Results. Established in collaboration with a local Support Group (affiliated with the UK Dyspraxia Foundation), the Oxford Brookes University OT DCD Activity Club is an after-school club for children aged 5-12 years with diagnosed/suspected DCD/Dyspraxia. Supervised by faculty, the club is designed, delivered and monitored by OT students, and supports attainment of personalised functional motor skill goals. Offered in 6-week blocks, for up to 8 children per block, the Club also offers opportunities for social interaction, confidence building, and enhanced self esteem. Parents/carers complete questionnaires and individualised goals are set in online pre-Club meetings with the children. Sessions include group warm up activities, group motor development activities, individual goal-related activities, and end of group wrap up. To date, the Club has run over 3 blocks, with 19 children. Post-Club outcome measurement, captured using the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure, suggest potential for meaningful impacts. Parents/carers feedback has been positive, e.g. “It's been a great opportunity for X to get to know children with similar challenges, which I think is great for [their] confidence” and “The activity club is...beneficial for everyone children and parents.”

The Issue: Allied Health Professions, the third largest NHS workforce, need to be empowered for sustainable healthcare practices (NHS, n.d.). A proactive systematic approach to empowering the future allied health professional (AHP) workforce with a strong professional identity is required as the health impact of climate change is significant and ubiquitous. One way to ensure that ‘curriculums stay relevant to current practice’ (HCPC, 2017) is through embedding sustainability within spiral curriculum in education programmes

Our goal: Within one UK Occupational Therapy programme, attitude, knowledge and skill development for environmental sustainability has been embedded at all stages of student learning through a spiral curriculum. The curriculum is designed to align with student development from novice, to intermediate and pre-graduate OT by engaging in head, heart and hand learning opportunities (Singleton, 2015) used for transformative sustainability education

Process: The educational approach was founded on information from Global and UK policy & guidelines. Staff engaged in SusQI training, learning outcome targets were mapped across learning outcomes and marking criteria. Review and refinement of spiral curriculum is constant and ongoing

Outcome:  Students as co-designer in currculum through primary data collection, publication and invited talks to stakeholders (AHP clinicians, HE educators and occupational therapists). Established a spiral curriculum for sustainable healthcare, SuSQI beacon site status in interprofessional teaching and growing capacity of lecturers in driving the delivery of sustainability related teaching.