I became interested in health care because of my own experience having had major surgery and hospitalization in my youth. I also worked at a camp with children and adults with developmental challenges when I was in high school and I really enjoyed that. Then my high school guidance counselor had me complete an interest/aptitude test, that identified OT as one of three careers that I would be most suitable for. I explored OT because I was curious about it… and the rest is history.
What is your favourite thing about CAOT-BC?
I like that CAOT-BC keeps us grounded in our professional identity. We have such a wide scope of practice that it is easy for us to sometimes lose sight of our umbrella of occupation. I also like connecting with other OTs within the practice networks, and the increasing opportunities that CAOT-BC provides for professional development.
CAOT-BC allows me to stay connected to others in my profession because it can sometimes be isolating to be in a sole private practice. I joined COTBC as a board member in 2008 to learn about provincial regulatory issues and to connect with other like-minded OT’s. Since then, I have served on various committees and continue to be on the Quality Assurance committee for COTBC. My involvement with both CAOT-BC and COTBC has helped me to stay informed of the BC provincial pulse of OT and also be connected to like-minded OTs who demonstrate excellence in practice.
What do you like most about OT?
I really can’t see myself doing anything else. I think it is the only profession that fills a really important need in serving people, throughout the lifespan to do the things that they want to do and need to do through the use of daily activities. This makes us unique. I think the holistic lens of OT allows us to understand individuals with multifaceted challenges that may be also invisible to most. I also really love being a “detective” and putting the pieces of the puzzle together.
Occupational therapy as a career affords lifelong professional and personal learning about the things that really matter in life. I learn so much about life through my clients while also learning more and more about myself. It is a gratifying experience being engaged with people and with what really matters to them.
Because of our very broad scope, it is important to be focused and goal-directed. I think that OTs, in general, are very goal-directed so in doing that we need to focus on where the family is at in terms of their needs and those of their child. We have a unique and holistic problem-solving approach. Our ability to analyze performance/behaviour and environment from many different constructs is unique and nobody does it better. I often hear from families their relief that OT has helped ‘put all the pieces of the puzzle together’ and that OT has been ‘a game changer for them’. As such they have a better understanding of their child and that can only help their relationship with their child.
I have worked in publicly funded health care in Alberta, Ontario and BC. In 2003 I started my own private paediatric practice in Kelowna in response to what I saw as gaps in services and access to paediatric OT. I appreciate that private practice has allowed me to create my own destiny, which has allowed me to truly practice under the large umbrella of occupational engagement and participation. This has allowed me to really help families and clients discover what is meaningful to them and what works for them in many different environments. I have worked in a variety of different practice areas but have always come back to working with children and youth, which is my passion. I particularly love working with those whose difficulties are not obvious whether diagnosed or not. It’s not about a diagnosis. It’s about living your life!
What do you find most challenging about working as an OT?
Currently, I feel we are undervalued and underutilized. Increasing our value as a member of the health care team is challenging with the present funding structure, the many roles that we take on and being few in number. My family physician indicates that he doesn’t know where to find an OT other than what he knows of our role in the hospital. That needs to change. I believe that documenting and talking about our role with our clients is so important for getting the word out about what we do, how we think and the value that we have. As OTs, we have to value ourselves first before anyone else will value us, and what we do. It is always a challenge in explaining what we do and demonstrating our knowledge in simple terms because what we do looks simple but what we know is very complex.
I find it challenging working with families who want help but do not have access to the resources to support them, due to the limited and inconsistent provincial public funding available and long wait times for OT at least in my geographical area. And let’s face it, occupational therapy requires a lot of physical, emotional, and mental energy which can lead to fatigue and burn out if you don’t take care of yourself, so it’s always a challenge to maintain work-life balance and really practice OT for yourself.
What would you tell someone who is thinking about becoming an OT?
Think really hard about your own reasons for becoming an OT and do some self-reflection to identify personal strengths and to make sure you have the right skill set. I think you have to be creative and love problem-solving and working with people of all ages. Before you go into OT, I think it is important to seek out some mentors and learn as much as you can about it. If it is right for you it is a very rewarding career that affords you many opportunities.
I think there will be a lot more opportunities in the future for occupational therapy as the profession begins to have an increasing role in health and social service systems.
What do you do when you aren’t working or volunteering?
I participate in many leisure activities to maintain a good work-life balance. I am an avid road cyclist and skier. I am passionate about yoga and enjoy spending time hiking and camping in the back-country and connecting with nature. I also enjoy getting my hands in the dirt in my garden, being part of a book club, and spending time with my two daughters, husband, dog and extended family. I believe that the things we choose to do in our leisure activities are based on our own sensory motor needs. So, if you are going to educate and share this information with your clients it is important to know yourself, recognize and be aware of your own sensory, emotional, and physical needs and pursue the things that make you feel good. I love the quote by George Bernard Shaw: “We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.”
What do you think will change/shape practice over the next five years?
With the upcoming wave of retirement of OTs and the potential increase in the shortage of OTs, we are going to need to be innovative. It’s great that we have a recent increase in seats at UBC but I think that is just the tip of the iceberg. I think we are going to have to re-evaluate and adjust how we provide service to not only children but all ages. I think there needs to be a movement to start identifying infants who are at risk at birth, not only from a person perspective but from an environmental perspective. I think there will also need to be an increase in public health funding for BC children from a prevention perspective.
We have a huge opportunity to shape future health-care practice by becoming more prominent on primary health-care teams. Also, by having GPs in the office talking about referrals to OTs and not having to go through this gate-keeping system. OT should be a first line of assessment and intervention and not the last because we can provide so much important diagnostic information to the health team. We have a lot to offer in differential diagnosis and detailed assessments for children. With individual tailored intervention we can often quickly make life so much better for them. I see some commonalities in the histories of the children that I work with. Families are leading very chaotic lives and coupled with adverse childhood experiences can lead to chaotic brain development. This leads me to believe that future practice needs to include more awareness of what this means cumulatively to children and how to take more of a preventative role.
Tell me about someone who has influenced your OT practice?
I have been really lucky to have great Canadian mentors. I have had direct mentorship and training from occupational therapists Jan Millar Polgar, Cheryl Missiuna and Ellen Yack to name a few. The late Dianna Mah-Jones was my very first clinical director. I think it’s really important to have good Canadian mentors because sometimes, especially in paediatrics, we get caught up in our US counterparts and what they are doing. We have to remember that their profession is highly influenced by their private health care system so we need to really stick to what works in our Canadian context because a lot of what happens in the US is not applicable to our practice, funding and resources. As you seek OT roles it’s important to find really good mentors and colleagues because they will shape your future role and satisfaction as an OT.
#OT365
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