Hi there, Margaret here.

Can I just ask a simple question;

Could you work more tidily?

Having three jobs, two messy teenagers, a husband, not to mention my dog and the chickens, you could be forgiven for thinking this is a personal question about my home life rather than work.

In fact it is another new acronym-I know it’s new as I came up with it up myself.

I have just returned from a weekend away in the Lakes with my husband. Whilst we were there I noticed there were a number of retirement apartments in the area.

I know my retirement is a long way off, but I was curious about what they had to offer and as I visit a number of care homes in a personal and professional capacity, how everything was laid out in terms of functionality and design.

I persuaded my long suffering husband to blag us a tour of one of the show apartments (I have always said he looks much older than me).

The apartments were delightful, modern and light with moving walls and outside spaces.

However, I did notice some interesting things. A settee which would have been more at home in a teenagers den; it was so low to the ground, a great walk in shower but no seat, lovely rails by the shower but no discrete handle next to the toilet.

At this point I had to admit my profession and ask if an OT had been involved in the design or was available to discuss any adaptations that could be made in the future, but sadly, as is all too common, the person had never heard of OT and had no idea that anyone was around to offer that kind of advice.

It really brought it home to me again that we have to get better at our PR. For some OTs and I am hoping to include you in this, doing it tidily may be an easy way to remember to promote and develop a wider knowledge and understanding of the profession.

TIDY

T – Tweet relevant experiences to increase education about occupational therapy
I – Inform the profession share ideas locally, nationally and internationally regularly
D – Discuss and debate in relation to current policies
Y -Your reflections on what you have done clearly demonstrating how you have met HPCP standards
Or the more advanced model

Tidily

T – Tweet relevant experiences to increase education about occupational therapy
I – Inform the profession share ideas locally, nationally and internationally regularly
D – Discuss and debate in relation to current policies
I – Inform the profession share ideas locally, nationally and internationally regularly
L- Link and network
Y -Your reflections on what you have done demonstrating how you have met HPCP standards

All these things link and circle round continuously and dare I say it, tidily. It helps me to think about the small picture and the large picture simultaneously.

I know there are so many of these acronyms about and they can irritate me as well, I often can remember the acronym but not what it stands for.

We must find them useful or we would not continue to use them.

I am sure you are very familiar with SMART and SMARTER well why not TIDY and TIDILY, it feels much more what can I say tidier….

T – Tweet relevant experiences to increase education about occupational therapy
I – Inform the profession share ideas locally, nationally and internationally regularly
D – Discuss and debate in relation to current policies
I – Inform, keep sharing ideas locally, nationally and internationally regularly
E – Energetic exploration of the evidence base
R – Reflections on what you have done demonstrating how you have met HPCP standards

Ok I am getting carried away now but you can hopefully see where I am coming from?

Wonder if it will catch on, let me know what you think or if you have some ideas of your own.

I would love to hear from you,
Margaret.