Occupational Therapy News OTnews July 2019 | Page 18

REPORT ANNUAL CONFERENCE
Is contemporary occupational therapy meeting UK’s challenges, asks Casson lecturer
Occupational therapists need to be agents of change in
complex systems, members heard at this year’s Elizabeth
Casson memorial lecture.
Dr Sarah Kantartzis, senior lecturer at Queen Margaret
University in Edinburgh, asked the audience at RCOT’s
annual conference if occupational therapists were
addressing the major occupational challenges facing the
UK population.
They include working with the unemployed –
particularly groups with higher rates such as people with
long-term mental health problems, learning disabilities and
asylum seekers – the 14.3 million people living in poverty,
the 320,000 homeless people and six per cent of the
population experiencing loneliness.
She also asked whether occupational therapists were
fully helping people in violent and dangerous occupations,
including the estimated 27,000 children in England and
Wales in gangs, or to help the people affected by the
40,000 annual knife crime offences or those with ‘non-
sanctioned occupations’ such as addictions.
She argued that thinking about complex systems,
following the model of philosopher Paul Cilliers,
would help understand a broader view of the
systems that occupational therapists find themselves
working in.
Doing so would mean occupational therapists
adjusting to complex mechanisms of decision-making,
but which would allow them to ‘work in the reality of a
complex world’ and allow them to become experts in
occupation when dealing with all agencies relevant to a
given problem.
Examples of projects that have done so include the
work in Glasgow to treat knife crime as a public health
issue and the obesity programme in Amsterdam.
This year’s lecture will be published in a forthcoming
edition of the British Journal of Occupational Therapy.
It was also announced that next year’s lecture will be
delivered by Dr Jenny Preston, consultant occupational
therapist at NHS Ayrshire and Arran, at a standalone
London event that will also be streamed live online.
Conference delegates help mixed media artist create ‘significant artwork’
With the help of occupational therapists from across
the country, mixed media artist Helen Birmingham is
creating a textile-based artwork, which will be donated
to the Royal College of Occupational Therapists.
Helen attended the RCOT annual conference last
month, and said: ‘Part of the conference area was
dedicated as a Stop, Do and Relax area, where my
company, Untangled Threads, promoted the meditative,
therapeutic and educational qualities of art and craft.
Helen involved delegates in helping to create ‘a
18 OTnews July 2019
significant artwork’, representing the history of
occupational therapy in this country.
‘In 2018, Untangled Threads undertook a hugely
successful project which, as well as commemorating
the 100th anniversary of The Armistice and raising much
needed funds for Combat Stress, also looked at the
history of Sawdust Hearts,’ Helen explained.
‘Decoration of the original calico hearts with
embellishments and pins was suggested by Queen Mary
at the end of World War One, as a form of occupational
therapy for injured servicemen. It marked a significant
point in the history of occupational therapy.’
Helen added: ‘I decided to make one sawdust-filled
heart to represent each day of WW1 – a total of 1,568.
These were posted out and decorated by individuals
from all over the UK, returned to me to take part in an
overwhelmingly emotional exhibition in November 2018,
before being sent back home in April 2019.
‘179 of the 1,568 hearts were left undecorated, and
formed a moving installation representing all victims of
all wars, military and civilian; 20 of these undecorated
hearts formed the “heart” of the RCOT artwork.’
At conference delegates were offered the opportunity
to ’stop and relax’ while making a few basic ‘running
stitches’ onto small pieces of calico and muslin. The
stitched pieces will be attached to the calico hearts with
pins, and threaded connections will be made between
the hearts themselves.
For more information visit: www.untangledthreads.co.uk.