REPORT INTERNATIONAL
Connecting together to increase learning
Charlotte Walker won funding from RCOT to attend the WFOT congress in Cape Town. Here she reflects on her unique experience and how it will impact on her future studies and career path
For the past year, I have been lucky enough to be vice president of SPOTeurope, a European student network that aims to connect students and increase international sharing and learning. I enjoy working internationally and learning about different perspectives of occupational therapy, but I still nearly talked myself out of entering RCOT’ s competition to attend the World Federation of Occupational Therapists’ 2018 congress in South Africa.
Finally, a lecturer convinced me to view it as writing practise, but I never expected to hear back. I am so glad I entered, because I won the place.
What would attending the WFOT congress mean? I knew about WFOT, but its values and ideals were relatively new to me, so I did not know what to expect from the congress.
Its location in Cape Town made me wonder how it would address the inequalities within Africa and around the world, and the role countries like my own have played in creating them.
My worry was that a conference for a predominantly white, middle class, profession, with strong Western influence, would contribute to these inequalities rather than tackle them.
I hoped WFOT would take the opportunity to address this, as well as be accessible to everyone with a passion for occupational therapy. I was excited, but also quietly cautious.
Challenging conversations I need not have worried. From the pre-conference workshops through to the closing ceremony, and all the sessions in between, no one avoided the difficult conversations.
I have found that many in our profession choose not to be openly political, a choice which is personal and each individual’ s to make, but I felt inspired to be in a setting surrounded by political and outspoken occupational therapists.
In her keynote address, Elelwani Ramugondo introduced me to the term occupational consciousness( Ramugondo 2018). This is the awareness that dominant practices are sustained by what we do every day and the implications this has on health and wellbeing.
Karen Whalley Hammell( 2018) provided tangible examples of this in her keynote address. We are encouraged to use evidence-based practice, but most research is based on communities like our own. By valuing research from Western countries higher than others’, and basing occupational therapy worldwide on this research, Ms Whalley Hammell argued that we are continuing to promote colonialism.
This highlighted to me the importance of reducing the Western bias within our evidence base and I find myself reflecting on how this could impact and strengthen occupational therapy practice within the UK context of the NHS, as well as around the world.
New directions and opportunities The congress further opened my eyes to areas of practice I did not know existed and showcased occupational therapists’ skills in preventative approaches to health and wellbeing.
I spent an afternoon learning about the role of occupational therapists in disaster relief. These professionals are working alongside vulnerable
© GettyImages / Kierran1
48 OTnews October 2018