Occupational Therapy News OTnews July 2019 | Page 13

ANNUAL CONFERENCE REPORT
You are ‘ahead of your time’, occupational therapists told by care minister
when she came to be a health minister that she ‘finally
understood what an occupational therapist does’.
She told delegates: ‘I know how you are ahead of
your time… I place enormous value on community health
services and the role that occupational therapists have
there. It always surprises me when people are shocked
that people want to be treated at home [and] OTs
understand better than most that holistic, person centred
care delivers the best results.’
She stressed that the government’s Long-Term Plan
commits to more care closer to home, alongside real
terms funding, commits to better mobile and digital
technology and forces a greater role for occupational
therapists in primary care.
Referring to the profession’s role in the forthcoming
green paper she promised that the government is
‘attempting to leave no stone unturned when it comes
to opening new doors for occupational therapists’ and
concluded ‘today’s occupational therapists in training will
be part of a grand enterprise’.
‘‘
‘Todays OTs in training –
and those yet to come – will be
part of the grand enterprise to build
a health and care system fit for this
century and the next. In so doing, they
will be helping to build a society that
supports everyone regardless of age,
background and circumstance, to be
healthy, happy and independent
for as long as possible.’
Caroline Dinenage MP,
Minister of State for Care
RCOT’s 43rd annual conference and exhibition,
held at the ICC in Birmingham on 17 and 18
June, was kicked off with inspiring plenary
speeches from Suzanne Rastrick, OBE, chief
allied health professions officer at NHS England,
and care minister Caroline Dinenage.
Suzanne focused on leadership within the
profession through her own experience of
overcoming ‘bumps in the road’ along her career
trajectory and the ‘voices’ of a number of influential
people within the health and social care profession.
Pulling no punches on some of the issues around
overcoming the hurdles to progression and leadership,
she said: ’Sometimes we can be pretty unkind to our
brightest and best,’ she said. ‘We can be scared of
them and we try to squash them. Stop it – we have to
support and nurture our colleagues.’
She outlined the five behaviours of effective leaders
as: model the way; inspire a shared vision; challenge the
processes; enable others to act; and encourage the heart.
She urged delegates to think about their destiny
and to overcome the ‘blips’ in their own journey. Don’t
destroy the young, she exclaimed, ‘be supportive
and encouraging, be a terror and don’t give up’. All
good leaders work with others to make changes, she
concluded.
Ms Dinenage started her address with a confession
that, had a careers advice encounter gone differently
at school, when she was told ‘You are going to be
an occupational therapist’, she might have had a
different life.
‘I didn’t know what an occupational therapist was
and I didn’t like to ask,’ she exclaimed. It was only
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