Member resources

Opportunities are provided for you to contribute in the following ways:

• Consultations - As stakeholders RCOTSSOP members are asked to contribute to Falls Guidelines, Delirium Quality Standards, Splinting Guidelines to name a few.
• Research - Benchmarking exercises and surveys regularly sent out by your peers seeking your knowledge and expertise, abstracts and articles regularly posted on the webpages and placed within the newsletter.
• Newsletter - Members are frequently invited to place articles in the newsletter, which is sent only to RCOTSSOP members three times per year i.e. reflections from study day events/conferences or introducing your service or national targets.
• Book Review - We regularly receive and can request texts specific to the needs of older people and invite members to review a text, if you have opted to become a book reviewer you will have the opportunity to choose a text, your review is placed in the newsletter and a copy passed onto the publishers for their use.
• Publications - Updates on Publications for you to read are posted on the websites, shared in emails and newsletters.

Fallcheck is an app to help prevent falls in the home. Based on information from occupational therapists and falls experts in the United Kingdom, the app gives a comprehensive guide to alert you to potential falls hazards that might be present in your own or a relative's home. Information on home to reduce the risk to help prevent falls is provided by the app.

When you start the fallcheck app, you will be presented with a menu displaying the layout of the house and outside space. Each area has several potential hazards within it, simply tap on the picture of the hazard and it will be described. If the hazard is present in the home you are considering, simply tap 'add to checklist'. Once you have located the hazards, go to the personalised checklist created from your responses. This will give you information on how to reduce or remove the hazards in the home that may cause a fall. When you exit the app your checklist is saved so you can look at it again. Some hazards can be reduced by using technology or gadgets to help.
 
Links are given to example products where they may be bought. It's worth shopping around though for the best price. Sometimes you might need more help or advice and links are given to organisations that can help you further. Links to third party websites will open in a new browser window/tab. To return to the app please close the opened browser window/tab. There are no differences between platforms.

The Fallcheck app

Dr Fiona Maclean, R&D lead for RCOTSSOP.

Email: FMaclean@qmu.ac.uk

Have you thought about representing occupational therapy at a national level? Would you like to contribute to the national guidance or developments? Network with others in your specialist area? Develop and deliver national study events? Do you have some time to dedicate your expertise in all things older people? Consider a position on our National Executive Committee.

Please contact ssop.membershipadmin@rcot.co.uk

Current Vacancies:

• Intermediate Care & Reablement (Co-Lead)
• Treasurer

These are monthly e-newsletters and updates on online webinars.

Please do ensure you are using an email account which can accept large file documents, perhaps save membership communications as a favourite to avoid it heading to the junk folder.

If you are not receiving communications at all, please contact ssop.membershipadmin@rcot.co.uk.to check your membership status and contact information.

Recent newsletters

• September 2023 e-newsletter
• May 2023 e-newsletter
• April 2023 e-newsletter
• March 2023 e-newsletter
• February 2023 e-newsletter
• January 2023 e-newsletter
• December 2022 e-newsletter
• November 2022 e-newsletter

Specialist Sections are required to comply with research governance requirements as per mechanisms put in place by the Royal College of Occupational Therapists (RCOT) since June 2005.

A process of ethical review now exists to facilitate fulfilment of responsibilities. For Specialist Sections, the arrangements apply specifically to research, audit, service evaluation and gathering customer feedback.

Where work is being undertaken by the Specialist Section (or on behalf of in the case of externally commissioned work), any requests for assistance with research need to be reviewed under the RCOT process. Any research articles that appear in the Specialist Section - Older People newsletter must include reference to obtaining ethical approval.

Further information can be found on the RCOT Research and Development pages.

We are unable to give out our members' names and addresses for confidentiality reasons. However, we can email our members with a request for volunteers to participate in research providing the request meets the criteria below:

This service is only open to current Royal College of Occupational Therapists Specialist Section (RCOTSS) Older People members and evidence of membership number must be provided. Non-members may join RCOTSS Older People to use this service;

• Only requests to support MSC/postgraduate research will be approved. Undergraduate research requests will not be supported;
• A copy of the research proposal together with details of the sponsor and evidence of the appropriate ethical approval must be submitted to the R&D Lead for the RCOTSS Older People;
• The researcher must agree to provide a written summary of the outcome of the research for the RCOTSS Older People Newsletter;
• With respect to the Data Protection Act, names and contact details of our members cannot be given out or disclosed in any way, but participants may be recruited in one of two ways:

- An email may be sent to participants via the membership administrator at RCOT asking them to contact the researcher directly if they are interested in contributing to the research. The researcher will be responsible for drafting the email to members.
- A link to an online survey may be emailed to members via the membership administrator. The researcher will be responsible for drafting the email to members.

Please see our current list of webinars, where the journal club now sits. Journal club allows you to engage with other OTs about a current topic that is relevant to older people and occupational therapy.

Book Review: If you have an opportunity to review a book that you would like included within our newsletter, please follow the book review guide below, and send it across to our communications team for inclusion. You may want to think about a book you have come across as part of your work (recently published) or a recent change to any policy or legislation that applies to your occupational therapy role that links across to older people