An interesting article I found in August 2008’s copy of OTC was about a talk given by Elizabeth Waterman from Jacqueline Webb and Company’s, about an introduction to other ways of working outside of the Statutory sector. For people working in the medico-legal area, Ms Waterman gave some extremely useful information on improving Occupational therapy assessment writing techniques which are fundamental to this area of work.
Jacqueline Webb and Company essentially provides a facility to solicitors and insurers and provides the assessment skills of its therapists to assess people who have been injured through no fault of their own and are claiming compensation. The holistic assessment takes into account past and future care requirements, transport, equipment and housing needs.
The session set out the position of a consultant and talked through very clearly what was needed of them in the varying stages of the process from assessment of the claimant to attendance at court as an expert witness.
Individuals attending the talk were asked to look at their report writing skills and seek out opportunities to refine and practice them to build up a good written technique making the long detailed reports not only exactly correct but interesting to read as well. Essential components of report writing were brought up such as logical presentation, use of language, structuring of the report and a professional approach. An A-Z of report writing, written expressly for the conference, can be downloaded from Jacqueline Webb and Company Downloads along with other useful topics about the consultancy role