cOnnecT with Dr. Ben Mortenson

Interview with Dr. Ben Mortenson, Scientific Committee Chair for CAOT Conference 2018. 

Why did you choose OT as a career?

It’s a shaggy dog story. I had a girlfriend whose sister was a physiotherapist, and her sister told her she should go into occupational therapy because it was way more interesting. I had never heard of occupational therapy. I helped sign her up for all the OT pre-requisite courses, but then she decided not to go to university that year. After a while I thought, that sounds interesting, maybe I’ll try that, but the courses were full. So, I unregistered her and registered myself. It was one of those fortuitous, happenstance kind of things.

What is your favourite thing about CAOT-BC?

I really appreciate the advocacy they do. It gets back to the unsung nature of occupational therapy and I just love how they are trying to change the course of policy that the government has, especially around student seats, and funding for occupational therapy services.

Tell us about your research. What led to this topic of study?

Most of my research is around assistive technology. I’m really interested in assistive technology in a very broad sense. I’m interested in the perspectives of clinicians in terms of how they prescribe a device and how they teach people to use a device, but also the broader social, political issues around it – funding policies that limit the prescription of technologies for people, and how the built and social environment impact use of assistive technology. I’m looking at user-centred design, talking to people about their needs, and then trying to identify what technology would address people’s needs. In university, I took a research course and the instructor said, “Occupational therapists rarely do research and if they do they never publish it” — and I was like, “Oh, well I’m going to do research, and I’m going to publish it.”

What has surprised you most about working as an OT?

I still think there are lots of tensions being an occupational therapist. We talk about wanting to enable people’s participation, and yet, a lot of times in a lot of settings we’re relegated to things that are more component-based. You have your PIC list, priority intervention criteria, and the occupation piece gets put down quite low on that list. I’ve always felt badly about that. I think it’s really important that no matter what we do we are thinking about occupation and how we can bring that to the forefront. I don’t just set someone up in a wheelchair so they have a wheelchair to sit in. I set them up so they can participate in occupation. And sometimes it’s just the kinesthetics of movement which is the occupation people are enjoying.

What do you think will change/shape practice over the next five years?

A lot of changes in terms of smart technologies, robotics and smart homes. Our environments are going to become much more supportive I think. They might even get to the point where they can predict things. It’s a bit Big Brother-esque, and I think there’s issues on both sides of it. There are new technologies they are trying to develop that might predict that a person is probably going to have a major fall in a week or two. Robots will be able to help care for people in their homes. We know that home care services are often limited. These could be game changers for people.

Tell us about someone who has influenced your OT practice.

For practice I would say Guylaine Desharnais. She was a wonderful therapist in terms of her knowledge about wheelchair seating and wheelchair set-up, but to me she was such an incredible advocate for the residents. There is a great story about her. She was working in a residential care facility that was really under-resourced. At that time, all the employees at the hospital got a mug to thank them for their work efforts. She actually returned the mug because she was offended they were using money for that when her residents were sitting in wheelchairs that were completely inadequate. It really got the attention of the hospital administration and she was basically able to lobby for equipment funding for her facility and also for other facilities attached to VCH. It was just one person who decided to stand up for the residents. It’s the difference between action and complaining --- it’s so easy to complain. She was absolutely inspiring from that perspective.

Interview by Catherine Lloyd, fieldwork student with CAOT-BC. 

#OT365