Friday the 14th of October 2022 is Allied Health Professions (AHPs’) day across the country.
AHPs’ day is an annual opportunity for AHPs’ to come together and celebrate being part of the AHP family. The day also gives an opportunity to showcase to others the impact they make to the delivery of high quality care and enable:
- Improved awareness of the role of the fourteen AHPs’
- Showcasing the achievements of local services and their impact on patient care and population health.
- Integrated working with other services.
Each of the 14 professional groups are highly trained to have a specific skill set and knowledge base that we need in healthcare and they each make their own distinct contribution.
On summary:
- Art Therapist: Art therapy used to explore issues such as emotional issues or learning disabilities
- Drama Therapist: Drama therapy uses role play, movement, and storytelling as a medium for psychological therapy
- Music Therapist: Music is used to help service users to address social, emotional, or physical difficulties
- Podiatrist: Podiatrists aim to increase people’s independence by helping them improve their mobility
- Dietitian: Dieticians diagnose, assess, and treat dietary as well as nutritional issues by promoting health awareness
- Occupational therapist (OTs’): OT’s assess and treat individuals struggling with their daily routines due to mental and physical health conditions.
- Operating department practitioner (ODPs’): ODPs’ primarily work in operating theatres alongside surgeons, anaesthetists and more.
- Orthoptist: Orthoptists diagnose and treat problems affecting how eye structures develop.
- Osteopath: Osteopaths assess, detect, and treat individuals by moving, stretching, and massaging muscles and joints.
- Paramedic: A paramedic provides advance levels of care in times of medical emergencies and traumatic situations.
- Prosthetist/orthotist: Prosthetists & Orthotists work to transform lives of service users to improve their ability to move freely.
- Physiotherapist: A Physiotherapist aims to restore and improve movement and function when a person experiences injury.
- Speech and language therapist: Speech and Language Therapists provide support with speech, language, voice, communication, eating, drinking and swallowing.
- Diagnostic radiographer: A Diagnostic Radiographer uses technology to look inside the service users’ bodies, to understand the cause of their illness.
- Therapeutic radiographer: A Therapeutic Radiographer is a professional that uses radiotherapy to diagnose and care for cancer service users.
This only scratches the surface of what AHP’s do and doesn’t include the many role extensions undertaken.
AHP day has never been more important as we move towards delivering more integrated health care, closer to home and out of hospital of which AHPs’ can play key roles in.
As Project Lead for the HNY AHP Faculty I play a key role in helping shape the next generation of AHPs’ and AHP Support Workers by co-ordinating activities to support, education and training. Providing an infrastructure to facilitate system wide working.
Meet the Humber and North Yorkshire AHP Faculty
As members of the AHP Faculty we work collaboratively to ensure the pipeline of AHPs’ continues to grow. We do this by focusing on our AHP workforce through partnerships and projects. We work to support the following important aspects of AHPs’ careers journeys.
This AHP day the Faculty will be attending a Celebration event in York to celebrate AHP Support Workers and we will be tweeting case studies throughout the day. Please follow us on Twitter: @hnyahpfaculty
For further information on AHP Day: NHS England » Allied Health Professions (AHPs’) Day
For further information on AHP careers: