Laura Finlay reflects on a recent role emerging placement experience, developing a virtual group to offer women clear, evidence based and empowering information on all things menopause.
As a first year pre-registration Masters student, the idea of a 10-week role emerging placement excited and scared me in equal measure, but I decided to push myself out of my comfort zone and apply. Fast forward to the end of the placement and I am so glad I made that decision.
While on placement with Jo Gaffney at @StylingLifeOT, alongside five other student occupational therapists, we developed a three-week private Facebook group to support women going through menopause.
Although this was a role emerging placement, we still based our work on the ‘nuts and bolts’ of occupational therapy.
We used the Occupational Therapy Intervention Process Model (Fisher 2009) to guide our actions and processes throughout the 10 weeks of placement. We also selected the Kawa Model (Iwama et al 2009) as our conceptual model, which used across our placement, acting as a powerful and applicable metaphor to help understand human life and one’s journey through it.
This information gathering phase was crucial in developing our service, as we wanted to hear people’s real life and lived experiences of menopause, not just the scientific narrative.
We found a real ambiguity in the information available to women and very little coherent evidence easily available, further supporting our mission to make information about menopause more accessible.
We created 15 topics to cover over the three weeks of the Facebook group. These eclectic topics ranged from the symptoms women may experience during menopause to sex, libido and vaginal dryness, to identity and self-worth.
As a group, we wanted to ensure our topics were representative, inclusive and diverse, as we are acutely aware that each woman has a different experience of menopause and all experiences are equally valid.
We strived to create a safe space for women to share their unique experiences in a non-judgmental environment.
After conducting initial assessments with a cohort of menopausal women, convenience and accessibility of information was deemed pivotal. Hence, using software and hardware already regularly used by these women, our Facebook group was born.
The specific constitution of the group was decided on after much discussion. We talked about group duration, content, whether we should charge group members, the best times to post and how to make it as person-centred as possible.
After conducting initial interviews with women going through peri-menopause and menopause, alongside gathering information from articles, journals and books, we decided on running a three week group via Facebook, where clients would pay £10 to become members of the group.
The fee did cause some ethical debate, but we were working for an independent occupational therapist who needed to run a business. If people were struggling to pay the £10, we were able to use our discretion to invite them to join free of charge.
This was a non-profit activity, as monies collected did not cover the costs of our meeting space and associated expenses.
On joining the group, clients could access around three posts a day, at the same time each day. We successfully created a safe space where they could gain information, try new things, such as Pilates classes or goal setting workshops, with the aim of helping them transition into, and manage, menopause.
We wanted to arm women with information and empowerment to live a life that is truly meaningful for them. Education and information is power and that was what we aimed to gift our clients in this online menopause group.
The delivery of our intervention group was different to the norm; we decided to use Facebook as our platform of communication as we thought social media was the most effective way to get our message across.
Facebook can be accessed from anywhere, at any time, and there is no word limit to your posts. We could also appear live, which meant we could meet with people in real time, although virtually, and this social element of the group was a major attraction.
We regularly evaluated the group and actively looked for areas of improvement in our service as the weeks went by. We provided educational posts, discussion posts, live Pilates classes and home workouts, SMART goal setting workshops, meditations and self-love guidance.
In addition, we signposted our clients to other websites, podcasts, documentaries and videos, recognising that some topics and advice was out of our professional realm.
The final evaluation was completed once our three week group came to an end and we received really positive feedback from our clients.
One group member said: ‘Thank you so much for this course, it has touched on subjects I don’t feel able to talk with my friends and family about.’ While another added: ‘I loved the bitesize guidance for making small changes to my lifestyle and have already started to put new habits into practice.’
A third member feedback: ‘Menopause just isn’t talked about enough, so I really appreciated hearing from others in the group about their experiences. It makes me realise I am not going mad; I’m just moving into a different life-stage.’
We did identify areas for development, which is crucial to the running success of this project and will allow Jo to offer an even better service the next time around with a new set of students.
For example, we highlighted longer group duration as an area for possible change and we have created a workbook that could be issued to new clients on registration to the group.
The skills we have developed on this role-emerging placement will help us stand out as we progress through our journey to become occupational therapists, including self-management skills, social media skills, intermediate teamwork skills, project management and marketing skills, as well as creating and developing an intervention from scratch; all skills that are representative of this evolving world that perhaps you would not really explore in such depth on more traditional occupational therapy placement settings.
Overall this role emerging placement has been a rich learning experience and I would implore anyone thinking about completing one to go for it. It really brought home the power of occupational therapy in changing other people’s lives.
On a more personal level, it also highlighted the possibilities occupational therapy offers in working independently on a project that you are passionate about, while maintaining all the core profession’s guidelines. It is a really exciting concept and an experience that will propel me along my journey to become an adaptable occupational therapist.
References
Fisher AG (2009) Occupational therapy intervention process model. A model for planning and implementing top-down, client-centred and occupation-based interventions. Fort Collins, Colorado: Three Star Press.
Iwama MK, Thomson NA, Macdonald RM (2009) The Kawa Model: the power of culturally responsive occupational therapy. Disability and Rehabilitation, 31(14), 1125–1135. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19479503.
Words Laura Finlay, MSc Occupational Therapy Student, Coventry University, email finlayl@uni.coventry.ac.uk, with cknowledgement to Jo Gaffney, Lizzie Dickinson, Nicole Shaw, Emma Walton, Shazia Begum Goni and Lucy Breatt