Interview with Kirsty Atkinson,
the first OT working on a PCN in Vancouver!
Why did you choose occupational therapy as a career?
I came to learn about OT through a close family member who was in the hospital and worked with an OT while they were there. I'd never heard of OT before and I was really interested in what they were doing and wanted to learn more. I was lucky to get the opportunity to shadow an OT for the day at a local mental health rehabilitation unit which was a valuable experience. I loved the idea of helping people to be able to do the things they want to do in life and use activity to support recovery. It just made a lot of sense to me. When I did a bit more research, I think the diversity of OT really appealed to me and the possibility of working in different areas of practice and with people of all ages across the lifespan. I knew that in this career there would always be something to learn and to keep me interested.
What is your favourite thing about CAOT-BC?
As I have been working in my new role in the Primary Care Network, and our launch was delayed during the pandemic, I've been working a lot on service development. Having access to the research articles and information on the CAOT-BC website has been great; it’s been really helpful to me. Also, as I'm currently the only OT on my team, the new Community Practice Network for Primary Care, is proving to be a really good resource for me in terms of networking with other OTs in the same role in different areas and sharing ideas for the development of this new role. It's nice to have other OTs to bounce ideas off!
Where have you worked over your career? Where do you work now?
I'm from the UK (you can probably tell from my accent!) and when I was there, I worked predominantly in older adults’ community mental health within the National Health Service (NHS). A lot of my work was supporting people with dementia and their caregivers. I also worked in acute mental health and on a dementia care unit for a short time. Since moving to Canada, I've worked in home health in both Alberta and now in B.C. This gave me more insight and experience in OT in physical health. Now I've started in this new role with the Primary Care Network, where we will be working with GPs to support people with mild to moderate functional needs across the spectrum of mental health and physical health. There is a lot of planning and work to do in terms of setting up the service but I’m very excited about the future and the opportunities ahead.
What has surprised you most about working as an OT?
I think possibly the lack of understanding (sometimes) amongst other health care professionals about our role. And we've been around for quite a long time! So, sometimes it is surprising to me that people still don't know what we do. I think it's something that is challenging because we work across such diverse settings and in such different ways. But communicating what we do is also something that we need to get better at, or I do at least! I'm hoping that within this new primary care role, because we're working with a broader population now and improving access, we might become more known in the mainstream to the general public.
Tell me about someone who has influenced your practice?
Someone that was probably a big influence on my OT practice was my mentor, Jill who was my OT supervisor in my first OT role. I was working in an older adult’s community mental health team during my first year where I did my preceptorship and she guided me through that process. She had worked in the field for almost 30 years and I learned so much from her about OT in practice when I was a brand new OT, fresh out of school! She inspired me, made me laugh a lot and was a great mentor and friend and we still keep in contact.
What might someone be surprised to know about you?
I like boxing. I box during the week and sing at the weekend! I am in a choir as well. So, there are a couple of things that people don't usually know and they're a little bit surprised to find out. I’ve also been to two football (soccer) World Cups! Some people I tell seemed surprised by that!
What do you think will change/shape practice over the next
five years?
I have talked a bit already about the primary care networks
and they are going to become much more widespread in BC. My team is the first
in Vancouver but there are plans for six PCNs here so far. So, we're going to
be expanding massively around the city and also elsewhere in the province and
so I think that that's going to change the landscape of OT here and hopefully
fill some gaps and provide service to people who previously been underserved.
So, I think that will be a positive change.
Another area where I think there are going to be changes in
practice (which has been become very apparent in the past few months) is in how
we are interacting through virtual health. I think that through virtual health
we've been able to do some things that we just didn't really imagine was
possible in a very short space of time. I think that this expansion of virtual
health will be a big change and will be a positive thing for lots of people and
might enable access to people in more remote places. That said, there are some
things in OT that we will always need to do in person and I, for one, really enjoy
that aspect of my job and being able to interact with people face to face. So,
I'm hoping we can get back to that soon!
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