Louise recognised for innovative practice in insomnia services | News

Congratulations to Louise Berger, Occupational Therapist specialising in sleep, who has received an Award of Merit in the Occupational Therapy Excellence Awards. 

Louise’s award in the Most Innovative Practice category recognises her work over the last 15 years to improve access to insomnia treatment, including building the Royal Surrey insomnia service from scratch with no existing model to follow. The service began as a six hours a week post, which Louise initially ran alongside her clinical work in the Emergency Department. From this start, it has grown into an established NHS pathway treating around 1,000 patients each year, provided by Louise and her two OT colleagues Helen and Susan.

The award also reflects Louise’s wider contributions to sleep medicine through teaching, national guidance, professional committees and development of resources to support the public and healthcare professionals. Louise is a clinical expert for the National Institute for Health and Social Care (NICE) insomnia guidelines and has been developing standards for training in sleep.

Louise said: “Receiving the award is a really lovely endorsement, but it’s also important for the field of sleep, which remains very overlooked.

“I think that Occupational Therapists are in an amazing position to help people with sleep, but our field, like much of healthcare, hasn’t paid enough attention to it, despite sleep being a significant issue. We know that about a third of the population experiences meaningful sleep difficulties. 

“So my main hope, having received this award, is to build a wider network. That will help us share good practice, reach more people and build momentum to wake people up to the importance of sleep.”