cOnnecT with Pamela Hood Szivek

Interview with Pamela Hood Szivek, recipient of the CAOT-BC Dianna Mah-Jones Memorial Grant for Innovation.

Why did you choose occupational therapy as a career?

I chose OT as a pre-med degree, and then I loved it and returned to the profession after other advanced training.  I chose OT for its focus on the whole person - physical, cognitive, social, emotional and more. I chose it for its core of sciences - anatomy, physiology, kinesiology, psychiatry.  I chose it for its developmental framework and growth promotion through the life span.  Lastly, I chose it for its pragmatism of focusing on the functional impact on our live's tasks and roles (occupations) that result from our health conditions, and its goal of rehabilitating function.

Congratulations on receiving a CAOT-BC grant! Tell us about how you used this grant?

The Dianna Mah-Jones Memorial Grant for Innovation allowed me to attend a paediatric vestibular course presented by Kim Bartel in Nanaimo last Spring.  This was an opportunity to learn additional advanced observation skills and treatment approaches for the clients I serve with sensory processing disorder, from an internationally acclaimed expert who happens to live in BC.  It was a chance to meet many other therapists in my field from around the province, country and beyond, and to watch best practices. This provided me with additional innovative insights into designing and equipping my own new paediatric gym space, a project now underway.

What is your favourite thing about CAOT-BC?

I was first a member of CAOT as an OT student quite some years ago.  Today, what I love about CAOT-BC is the Practice Networks with their opportunity to meet through videoconferencing. I also use the journal access to CAOT and AOTA and other published research to find the latest best practices when clients present me with new challenges.

Where have you worked over your career? Where do you work now?

I have practiced in paediatrics for 25+ years, initially in schools and clinics, and then in my own practice. I ventured back into adult services in the past two years, and appreciate the slow orientation provided by VIHA for my COT role.  Paediatrics remains my true passion, and I have a private practice in Victoria today.

What has been your most interesting job?
Within paediatric OT practice, schools were the most nurturing workplaces, clinics were the most technically advanced, and my own practice has had the widest scope of practice, the greatest diversity, and the most family-centered approach to care.

What has surprised you most about working as an occupational therapist in BC?

Throughout my university training and early in my career in hospital rehab departments, OTs and PTs worked side by side, with equal status, professional respect and understanding between the professions. In pediatric clinics, I likewise worked closely with physio and speech professionals.  Lately, I have been surprised by a lack of understanding of OT role among PT and Kin professionals, particularly in adult private sector clinics. I hope its not a widespread opinion that OTs entire scope of practice can be covered between physiotherapy and psychology.  Lobbying to eliminate the Worksafe mandate that there be OT providers in their Occupational Rehab programs seems surreal, given the program name and history.  Such professional competition, scope of practice infringement and lack of inter-professional respect is the most surprising part of working as an OT in BC.  Addressing these issues may be an emerging role for a professional body like CAOT-BC.

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

Besides decreased alliances with physiotherapy referenced above, I think tele-practice opportunities will expand tenfold and continue to change where, when and how OTs practice. This, and the shifts in primary care service delivery models, will continue to increase collaborative OT roles in the community (mostly public sector). In paediatrics and in mental health, I think our understanding of neurodiversity will expand in the next five years, and high functioning individuals on the spectrum will more actively shape our clinical practices and research will help resolve tensions between approaches.

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