Page 22 - PIC-Magazine-Issue23-Autumn-Winter-24

Jessica Thurston
Shaping the future of Somek & Associates
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After 30 years as an occupational therapist and 23 years with Somek & Associates as an Expert Witness, including 14 years as their Head of Medico-legal Operations, in September 2024 Jessica Thurston will be taking up the position of Managing Director. We spoke to her about her career to date and her ambitions for Somek & Associates.
What took you into Occupational Therapy?
I always knew from a very early age that I wanted to be
an occupational therapist (OT). My mother had a stroke
as a result of dental clinical negligence when she was
12 years of age, and I had therefore been brought up by someone who was fiercely independent despite her very significant disability. In fact, I did not really notice she had a significant disability because she used to achieve the same as everyone else, but just went about it in a different way! However, through these early life experiences I acquired problem solving skills and a compassion for the dignity of others, which in turn gave me a natural ability
to teach others with a life changing illness/disability to
also lead independent and fulfilling lives. These values of independence, dignity, equality and freedom are at the core of occupational therapy, and it quickly became evident that I was destined to be an occupational therapist.
As an Occupational Therapist by trade, what inspired you to move into the medico-legal field?
You would think that as the daughter of a mother so significantly disabled as a consequence of clinical negligence, that I would have been very knowledgeable about the medico-legal field. However, Clinical negligence litigation did not really exist 70 years ago when mum needed it, as it does now, and therefore she (or rather her parents) did not make a claim. There was therefore no money available for housing adaptations, equipment, driving adaptations and other more typical ‘Heads of Claim’ that we see today.
I came across the medico-legal field quite by accident when I met Alison Somek at a training event and she spoke to me about the expert witness role. By this stage,
I had been qualified for almost eight years, where I had worked predominantly in trauma and orthopaedics and amputee rehabilitation. I was working at a Band 8A level as a Head OT, had completed an MSc in OT, and had worked
for three years in the occupational therapy department of a Japanese hospital. I was therefore ready to embark upon my next occupational therapy challenge and joining Somek as an associate expert witness, running alongside my clinical OT role, seemed the perfect fit.
I have never regretted taking my occupational therapy skills into the medico-legal field. The aim of reasonable restitution in the award of quantum damages, is to:
“assess objectively what is that sum of money which will put the party who has been injured in the same position, as he would have been in, if he had not sustained the wrong for which he is now getting his compensation”
(Lord Blackburn, Livingstone v Rawyards Coal Co, 1880). I have always believed that an occupational therapist is the expert witness best placed, out of all of the other experts, to comment on the impact of disability upon a claimant’s function and life and, in so far as money is able, make robust recommendations that will enable the ‘return of the claimant to their pre-injury condition and lifestyle’. As occupational therapists we assess an individual’s independence holistically, taking into consideration the impact of their physical and psychological functioning upon their safety and independence, with reference to the individual’s values and life priorities, and all with reference to the physical and socio-cultural environment in which they live.
It is not uncommon for OT’s in the NHS to feel that their skill set is not fully utilised and that they have been forced into a ‘discharge planning role’. They also feel that in their pursuit for different and challenging roles, the positions available
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