We are proud to be home to some of the UK’s most specialist professionals, from Registered Nurses and Therapists and the most compassionate Care Workers, to talented SEND Teachers and Learning Support Assistants, not forgetting the creative and strategic thinkers in our Business Support Offices.
Our team work to create strategies, targets and individual programmes that empower children with complex needs, their families and carers, and push Seashell forwards as a leader in the SEND community.
We’re a supportive and friendly bunch, and it’s time to introduce ourselves! Meet Lucy, one of our Occupational Therapists.
Hi, I’m Lucy and I am a member of the college Occupational Therapy Team.
I started in May this year and my role involves assessing student’s needs and providing equipment, strategies, and therapy sessions to support their access to education and work towards increasing their independence.
As therapists, we work as part of the MDT (multi-disciplinary team), working in collaboration with other therapists, teachers, house managers and Learning Support Assistants to maximise a student’s abilities and support their involvement in activities they enjoy and find meaningful.
The work that we do allows students to recognise what is important to them and helps us to identify a strategy, which would enable them to reach their goals. These can relate to functional skills such as parts of a morning routine (washing, dressing, selecting appropriate items for activities etc), or eating and drinking (selecting from a menu, making a snack drink or meal, cooking in their house etc) or they can relate to social/inter-personal skills such as managing anxiety, accessing work placements etc.
We work with a range of equipment within our roles, from small items of adapted cutlery to larger items in the home such as shower chairs. All the equipment is chosen specifically for that individual to enable them to enhance their independence and reduce potential risks to staff when carrying out moving and handling tasks with students. Sensory items are often prescribed and can help students reach a state of regulation where they can engage with classroom activities.
I really enjoy my role at Seashell as I have the opportunity to get to know the students and create interventions that are tailored to their specific needs. I also work within a really supportive team and wider MDT, it really feels like all staff at Seashell are invested in each student.
Prior to working at Seashell, I worked as a support worker for 13 years and then as an OT Assistant in the community, supporting people with brain injury rehabilitation. I qualified as an Occupational Therapist in September 2021 from Salford University. I have worked for Seashell previously in a support role and couldn’t think of a better organisation to start my OT career with.
In my spare time I love to bake, my mum taught me everything I know so there is pretty much always a cake in my house!”
