Reminiscing ..... how about you?

My student room 1980

 Having recently taken on the role of Admissions Tutor I have been learning the ropes as I go along and also considering what, if any, changes we may need to make in light of the recent Francis Report which recommends we consider values and attitudes of new recruits with particular reference to dignity and compassion. After a few consultation sessions with staff, students and service users, I am in the process of writing up my report to present to the team in a few months time.

Last week saw the last of our interviews for next year's BSC (Hons) Occupational Therapy full time  students so I now have the hard task of selecting 56 students from the 120 students invited for interview... phew - I may need lots of coffee and chocolate over the next few days. Luckily I have Heather Davidson to help me as the experienced admissions tutor I have taken over from.

As my current focus is on this process, a small period of reminiscence raised it's head as I discussed with a colleague our own interview for OT training and our subsequent experience of being an OT student. The difference between then (dare I say my interview was 33 years ago now ?!) and today is rather extreme and I thought it may be something to share here. I would be interested to hear your comments and to read about your own experience, whenever that was.

One of things that stick in my mind at interview was being asked "what does you father do?" and "do you have a boyfriend?". I imagine that the former was to see what my background may be and the latter to see whether I was dedicated to study or if I was going to have a distraction in the form of a relationship. Can't imagine asking these questions today!! I seem to have vague memories of a group discussion and certainly a written task where I had to choose between writing about a holiday I had taken and what I knew about learning disability. I chose to write about a holiday - but have no recollection what I actually said. I got offered a place though and started September 1980 so I must have done something right.
The letter of acceptance asked us to bring certain things to college (wasn't university in them days!) which included:
a) tape measure
b) scissors
c) an apron
d) a travel rug (never did find out what this was to be for).

I arrived  at St Andrew's School of OT in Northampton (in the grounds of a very grand Psychiatric Hospital) and was given accommodation in the Nurses' Home with all the other first year students (we had to source outside accommodation in year 2). Meals were provided in the hospital canteen - although we were allowed kettles and toasters in our rooms (at least I think we were allowed - we did anyway).  Our timetable was full Monday through Friday 9am-5pm with 2 nights of evening classes at a local FE college for touch typing and woodwork.
Our days in college were taken with lectures (psychology, sociology, medicine, surgery and orthopaedics, communication and management and then anatomy and physiology which was an all day event every Thursday at Nene College - a local polytechnic) and practical activities of weaving, basketry, stool seating, lathe and fretwork, metal work, cookery and printing. We also had to put on a show for the resident patients within the hospital at the end of the first year - I remember dancing a hornpipe and singing a solo (don't ask!!).
Unlike now where our students have placements throughout each level and sourced locally,  our placements were mainly in final year and we could be sent anywhere in the country. We had a one day observation placement running through 6 weeks of first year, one month at the end of second year (I was sent to Hounslow Social services and lodged with an Archdeacon and his family) and then the final year was totally out on placement - returning for one day periods through the year to sit exams and then a final 6 weeks back in college for revision and final exams. My placements were in London, Poole and Norfolk - so every 12 weeks or so I would be packing up and moving to the next placement with very little contact from College at this time (as far as I remember).
I left with a Diploma and a clear desire to work in Norfolk in Mental Health - and one that I achieved.
So, just a little indulgence there - thankyou for allowing me this - but I really would like to hear what your training was/is like whether in the UK or anywhere in the world.

PS: Oh, and my student uniform was blue!

Is it 4 months already?.......

Wow!! Almost 4 months since our last blog post - our apologies if you have been visiting the blog and hoping to read and engage with new posts. I have no specific reason other than the pressure of other priorities. I guess you could say I was grappling with occupational balance - with my work role taking a priority as the University introduces changes to many of our systems for assessment, grading and feedback. These are now mastered and so I feel I may have brain space to consider blogging again.

Much has been happening since the last post. We are currently in the process of selecting applicants for our Full Time BSc (Hons) programme and will begin interviewing soon. I (Angela) have recently taken on the role of admissions tutor and am undertaking a project looking at values based recruitment. We have had a number of high profile cases in the UK media recently involving nursing staff in situations where their ability to demonstrate care and compassion for an individual has been questioned, leading many to question how people are being selected to go into the profession. The recently published NHS Constitution identifies values that should be held by all staff and so I am looking at this and other drivers and holding consultations with staff, students, service users and employers about what values are a priority for an occupational therapist and how we may assess for these before offering a place on the programme. This has become an interesting project and I shall be delivering my results to our Directorate Board later in the year and hope to share my findings in relevant professional forums.

Our application process for the online MSc Advanced Occupational Therapy programme is still open (closing August 2013). You can find more information about it here - or contact us if you have any specific queries.

Four of our second year students have been given a volunteering opportunity to work with a local mental health trust to design and deliver a carer's group with an innovative focus - sorry if that sounds mysterious - but we don't want to publicise what we are doing too far and wide at the moment - we are intending to present at COT conference in Glasgow later on in the year - and then we will happily share with you here too. However, in the process of the discussion and design period one of the students drew my attention to this website: Patient Voices- excellent resource and some great stories for sharing that highlight issues experienced from all points of views.

OK, perhaps that's all I can offer at the moment, we are considering having a regular newsletter to distribute which will give more news and views from the directorate staff and students which we will link through the the blog. In the meantime I will start to write more pieces that you can start to engage with again very soon. Thanks for sticking with us.

OccuBuzz and World Occupational Therapy Day

Today is World Occupational Therapy Day - all around the globe occupational therapists are engaging in activity to promote the importance of occupational balance, engagement and performance to individual and community health and wellbeing and celebrating our profession.

Here at University of Salford, as part of the celebrations, we are officially launching our newly developed app: Occubuzz. Some of you may have had a sneak preview already via OT News and WFOT.

 “OccuBuzz” is a light hearted app that draws on the concept that what we do affects how we feel (Wilcock 2005), and that by encouraging occupational balance  - the right amount of occupation and the right variation between occupations (Wagman et al 2012) we can work towards achieving the subjective experience of eudaimonic wellbeing (Hayward and Taylor 2011). This fun app is intended to get people talking and thinking about what they do and how it makes them feel.  We hope that it will provide people with some suggestions as to how to achieve occupational balance, and to highlight the potential benefit of occupational therapy for those who are unable to be their own therapist.

The app contains 7 questions that ask you to identify how you feel about the things you have to, need to or want to do in your weekly routine. A quick press of a button will provide you with feedback and will identify if you may be experiencing occupational balance, occupational deprivation or occupational overload. If the news is bad, the app then has a 'help me' button, and offers tips and links to improve wellbeing that are that are based on occupational therapy philosophy and principles.

The app is not aimed at occupational therapists, but at the general public. We would like to see the concept of occupational balance seep into public consciousness, and to highlight the steps a person can take to influence their own wellbeing through what they do. We believe that many people can be their own occupational therapist and in this way occupational therapy can be “defined by those who may benefit from it, not its practitioners” (Hayward & Taylor 2011 p 137). This is not to say the occupational therapist is redundant. Some people will be unable to overcome their challenges without specialist help, and the app contains links to the World Federation of Occupational Therapists for those who want to find out more about us.

This app isn't perfect of course. We acknowledge that occupational balance and participation in occupation are complex concepts; values and culture for example, influence occupational choices and these have not been given full consideration in this version of the app. The app is a work in progress.  It is intended that a fuller version will be developed on the basis of feedback from this one and so we welcome your help in sharing the app, and in making it better by collecting feedback and telling us about it.  

update: 23.2.2020 The app is no longer available

Hayward C, Taylor J (2011) Eudaimonic Well-being: Its Importance and Relevance to Occupational Therapy for Humanity Occ Ther. Int 18(2011) 133-141 Wagman P, Hakansson C, Bjorklund A (2012) Occupational balance as used in occupational therapy: A concept analysis Scandanavian Journal of OT 19: 322-327 Wilcock A A (2005) Occupational Science: Bridging occupation and health CJOT Vol 72 Number 1 5-12

Occupation, singing and Gareth Malone

Over the last few weeks I have watched, enraptured, as Gareth Malone creates a choir out of disparate individuals - this series he's working with people in their place of work. Over the last few years I have never missed a series, from working with school children, residents of a housing estate and, perhaps more well known is Gareth's work with the military wives choir. All absolutely spell-binding and a "feel good" factor ending.

All this time, myself and colleagues have been heartened and amazed at the success of his projects and often commented that, by using the occupation of singing he could be said to be facilitating the well being of each individual in his choir. Maybe he is enabling them to be their own occupational therapist?

In a rather timely coincidence, whilst I was thinking about this concept, (and trying to think how we could contact Gareth to put our ideas to him and see whether he had ever considered aspects of occupational science and occupational therapy principles) Dr Jackie Taylor ran our first online CPD Masterclass entitled: Essential Occupational Science: Putting Occupation back into Occupational Therapy. 
An extremely successful and well attended event that over the course of 90 minutes enabled the participants to consider many aspects of occupational science and its links in informing  the underlying principles of occupational therapy. With strands of well being and identity threaded through the session, Dr Taylor asked participants to consider the underlying meanings attributed to our occupations, social meaning, occupational integrity, co-occupations and much, much more, ending by  reflecting on Whiteford's (2004) suggestion that as occupational therapists we stop trying to define our role, but instead define the underlying perspectives of health and the relationship between health and wellbeing and how, as occupational therapists, we work with that.

Fantastic session Jackie, here's to the next online Masterclass on Change Management  delivered by Heather Davidson- see here for more details about the session.

So, back to Gareth............
In watching the latest series I have watched him form a choir in an NHS Trust, a Royal Mail Depot and an airport. An interview with Gareth on the BBC website clearly demonstrates Gareth's beliefs in the importance of singing and of choirs to an individual's confidence, the positive impact on state of mind in addition to the health benefits of posture, breathing etc. He also acknowledges the benefits of a choir in terms of camaraderie and beating fears of isolation.

But it is much more than that.

In the NHS Trust the choir broke down barriers of hierarchy and gave all staff a feeling of belonging to the whole organisation rather than sticking to 'mixing with their own level'. What was interesting, I think, was that Gareth found it hard to get the choir to display an emotional attachment to their singing. Reflecting possibly the fact that the culture in this environment was one of " professional detachment" in order to deal with the rigours and stresses of day to day situations in their working life? This perhaps has resonance with the issue of cultural attitude and how this can impact on ability to engage in occupation. If the 'form' of an occupation requires emotional attachment or display then it can be difficult for someone to engage fully in that occupation of they are unable to do that (either through individual meaning attributed to that occupation or societal expectation).

In the Royal Mail depot, going through change and uncertainty it bridged the gap between management and ground floor staff to improve morale. In the beginning there was a lot of talk about change, controversy and a suggestion that there song should be Morrisey's "Heaven knows I'm miserable now" ("I was looking for a job...."). In addition, a 'playful' hiss went around the room when it was noted that representatives from management were in the choir. Interestingly, Gareth's song choice for them was "We can work it out" by The Beatles. Members of the choir soon began talking about sending a message and delivering a message which could improve relationships (postal terms rather well used here I thought!) and one manager talking about being in the choir meant that they all helped each other along and that " there's no difference between us". I wonder, does this demonstrate rebuilding a community through occupation that impacts on each individual's well being through improved morale, greater job satisfaction and a feeling of being valued in the workplace? "It's given me some pride back in myself" states one choir member. One manager sees the transferability of what is happening "as a choir we work together brilliantly, we help each other, we put up with each other's mistakes and when we get it right it sounds fantastic. Why doesn't this translate to the workplace? What are we missing?"

In the airport it facilitated crossing the divide of landslide and air side staff, with the clear enabling of an individual, still recuperating after a serious accident, to regain an identity and a role. "this (choir) is helping me feel good about myself again and giving me something to do". One member of the choir talks of a common reason for being there,


I tweeted Gareth to say how much I was enjoying the series and to ask if there were any occupational therapists in his choir. He replied!! Apparently there are. So, if anyone reading this is in one of his choirs, is an OT in his NHS choir, or indeed if you are Gareth himself (and I really hope you are reading this) we would love you to get in contact with us to discuss some of these experiences and issues further.

Please note - links to the iplayer episodes are only available for a short time - 23rd Oct 2012