“I’m Raj. As a Founder and Managing Director at Therapies on Thames Ltd, a rehabilitation service provider for the elderly, I am passionate about making rehabilitation accessible to elderly people at every stage of their lives through our fantastic team of physiotherapists and occupational therapists. I am a hardworking, dynamic professional with a wealth of experience working in the health and social care sector and private sector with strong leadership as well relationship building skills.
These inherent qualities and a strong spirit of cooperation allow me to provide the highest quality of care to clients and patients, supporting and contributing to Therapies on Thames’ growth and prosperity.
I am driven by improving the quality of client’s lives and enabling them to live comfortably and safely at home. I am confident, personable and highly conscientious. Throughout my lengthy and established career, I have acquired strong clinical and leadership skills as well as service development skills.
I have achieved successful outcomes on projects such as rightsizing care by working closely with amazing care providers who are looking to find new ways of working and contributing to the NHS. Alongside social care and customer safety, these providers work to effectively set up discharging and assessing beds, health and social care integration projects and setting up private inpatient rehabilitation beds in Berkshire and Oxfordshire. I have also been working alongside local care homes, implementing a physiotherapy and occupational therapy service which enhances residents’ quality of life, and helping staff to achieve best practice.
I am truly passionate about rehabilitation for the elderly, to support them to live a longer and safer life, as well as deeply compassionate to those who have a wide range of needs. I have a specialist interest in Parkinson’s disease management and elderly care, and I have the honour of delivering the highest quality of care through my roles in the NHS, social care and my private rehabilitation service – Therapies on Thames.”
Career Pathway
Raj trained as an occupational therapist in India and moved to UK in 2005, starting his career as a junior occupational therapist at the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading. When he initially qualified, Raj worked in India for about two years before moving to the UK. At the Royal Berkshire Hospital, Raj had worked in various specialities including the intensive care unit, orthopaedics, neurology and elderly care between 2005-2014. He had become an interprofessional therapy lead for elderly care and worked with multidisciplinary team members to various projects. These projects included inpatient falls prevention by using telecare technologies, nutrition for the elderly, reducing the length of stay in hospitals and most importantly setting up a movement disorder clinic for over 65s in 2013.
After 10 years of working in the NHS, Raj elected to leave and pursue a career in the social care sector, as rehabilitation provision was very much limited as a consultant occupational therapist. He has worked with Reading Borough Council and Wokingham Borough Council as a specialist consultant, implementing a high-quality reablement service for elderly people and working with various care providers. He continued to be the Managing Director of Therapies on Thames at the same time and focused on setting up rehabilitation services for self-funders who benefited after their course of reablement from the NHS or from social care.
As part of his social care consultant role, Raj set up a training centre for care agency workers in Wokingham Borough Council, which can be accessed for free. Raj believed that care agency staff deserved ongoing training from the local council to achieve best outcome for their customers. This training is mainly focused on manual handling and therapeutic handling for care agency staff.
Raj has also been working with local care homes and established 10 bedded inpatient rehabilitation units in Berkshire and Oxfordshire for self-funders, those who are in need of respite and rehabilitation services, either after a discharge from hospital or to prevent them from being admitted to hospitals. Raj is still working on creating a one-stop-shop for the elderly population in Wokingham, Berkshire. This includes an outpatient therapy service based at WADE day centre, with an inpatient and home visit rehabilitation service to meet the varying needs of elderly patients.
It is Raj’s dream to establish a one-stop-shop nationwide for elderly people who are in need of ongoing rehabilitation throughout their life no matter where they live, whether it’s in their own homes, sheltered accommodation, or in care homes, by working with various agencies, NHS teams or charities who are committed to supporting the needs of elderly people.
Qualifications and Professional Development
Raj qualified as an occupational therapist and became a health and social care entrepreneur; he is still learning and developing himself every day at work. Raj looks forward to utilising his 17 years’ experience, skills and knowledge in order to train carers to provide a high standard of care to those customers requiring complex reablement care, but still wishing to remain in their own home.
Raj believes that enabling customers to stay at home helps them feel that they are more able to retain their own individualism and independence in their own environment.
Raj has attended numerous professional development training, including, but not limited to:
- Understanding Dementia (a course for health and social care professionals) – July 2010
- Parkinson’s masterclass – May 2012
- Postural stability instructor – June 2013
- PSP stay day – September 2013
- Parkinson’s disease study day – June 2013
- Acupuncture – May 2014
- Single-handed equipment training – November 2016
