Allied Health Professionals
The Allied Health Professionals (AHPs) are a many and varied group of both registered and non-registered practitioners within the NHS.
Within Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust, the AHPs include the following professions:
- Physiotherapy
- Podiatry
- Occupational Therapy
- Speech and Language Therapy (SALT)
- Dietetics
- Art Therapy
- Music Therapy
Physiotherapists
Our Trust employs a number of physiotherapists in the following areas:
Paybody Building
City of Coventry Health Centre
Newfield House
Physiotherapy uses physical approaches to promote, maintain and restore physical, psychological and social well-being, working through partnership and negotiation with individuals to optimise their functional ability and potential.
Physiotherapists address problems of impairment, activity and participation and manage recovering, stable and deteriorating conditions – particularly those associated with the neuro-muscular, musculo-skeletal, cardio-vascular and respiratory systems – through advice, treatment, rehabilitation, health promotion and supporting behavioural change.
Physiotherapy uses manual therapy, therapeutic exercise, the application of electro-physical modalities and other physical approaches in response to individual need.
Physiotherapists work across sectors and settings, including acute, community and workplace settings, and with a large number of population and patient groups.
Adapted from NHS England
Podiatry
Our Trust's Podiatry service is based at the City of Coventry Health Centre.
Podiatry is the modern, preferred alternative title for Chiropody. All of our Podiatrists are registered with and regulated by the Health and Care Professions Council as reaching the professional standards required to practice in the NHS.
The Podiatry Service provides a specialist role in the assessment, diagnosis and treatment of foot problems to patients at risk. This include people of any age that have a foot problem combined with an underlying medical condition that is affecting the circulation and sensation in their lower leg or foot, and which may put their foot health and mobility at risk.
Patients classed as ‘At Risk’ include people with diabetes; rheumatoid arthritis; cerebral palsy; peripheral arterial disease; and peripheral nerve damage.
Ingrown toenails can be treated according to severity. The service provides nail surgery under local anaesthetic where appropriate, including follow-up aftercare. Non-surgical treatment and advice can be provided when surgery is not appropriate.
Occupational Therapy
Occupational Therapists (OTs) work with people of all ages with a wide range of problems resulting from physical, mental, social, or developmental difficulties.
OTs support people with a range of interventions to enable them to return to or optimise participation in all the things that people do; for example, caring for themselves and others, working, learning, playing and interacting with others.
Being deprived of or having limited access to any or all of these occupations can affect physical and psychological health. Hence, OTs positively impact upon the wellbeing and rehabilitation of patients in most care pathways and in the broader public health and social care environment.
There are two Occupational Therapy services within CWPT:
St Michael's Hospital
Paybody Building
Adapted from NHS England
Speech and Language Therapy (SALT)
Speech and Language Therapists (SLTs) work with children and adults to help them overcome or adapt to a vast array of disorders of speech, language, communication, and swallowing.
This includes:
- Helping young children to access education;
- Working with young offenders to enable them to access the programmes designed to reduce reoffending;
- Reducing life-threatening swallowing problems in the early days after stroke; and
- Providing essential support to adults with a range of acquired neurological communication difficulties to help them return to work, and their roles in their family and society.
There are two Speech and Language Therapy (SALT) services operating within the Trust:
Newfield House
Paybody Building
Although the teams are based at these sites, a lot of the work done by our speech and language therapists is accomplished out in the community; at schools, care homes, day centres, etc.
Adapted from NHS England
Dietetics
Dietitians are the only qualified health professionals who assess, diagnose and treat diet and nutritional problems at an individual and wider public health level.
Within our Trust, dietitians often work as a part of a multi-disciplinary team, often with a community focus.
Uniquely, dietitians use the most up–to-date public health and scientific research on food, health and disease, which they translates into practical guidance to enable people to make appropriate lifestyle and food choices.
Dietitians are the only nutrition professionals to be regulated by law, and are governed by an ethical code to ensure that they always work to the highest standard.
Adapted from NHS England
Art Therapy
At St Michael's Hospital in Warwick, there has been an art psychotherapy room for patients on Ferndale Ward since March 2018.
Art therapists use art as a form of psychotherapy to encourage clients to explore a variety of issues including emotional, behavioural or mental health problems; learning or physical disabilities; life-limiting conditions; neurological conditions; or physical illnesses.
People of all ages from children to the elderly, regardless of artistic experience, use art therapy in this way as an aid to supporting them with their particular concern. It is not a diagnostic tool but rather a mode of communication and expression.
Adapted from NHS England
Music Therapy
In CWPT, Music Therapists form a part of the Psychological Services, and support the Community Learning Disability Teams. They are based at The Loft, Nuneaton.
Music therapists engage clients in live musical interaction so as to promote an individual’s emotional wellbeing and improve their communication skills.
Clients do not need to have any previous experience of playing a musical instrument (or even singing), as this established psychological clinical intervention utilises their unique connection to music and the relationship established with their therapist to
- Help develop and facilitate communication skills;
- Improve self-confidence and independence;
- Enhance self-awareness and awareness of others; and
- Improve concentration and attention skills.
In particular, music therapy is an effective intervention for those clients who cannot speak due to disability, illness or injury. Their psychological, emotional, cognitive, physical, communicative, and social needs can be addressed through the musical interaction with their therapist.
Music therapy can be beneficial for individuals of all ages and physical abilities however, from new born babies in terms of establishing the parent-child bond to those receiving palliative, end-of-life care.
Adapted from NHS England