OTnews June 2023 | Page 54

Volunteering

Feature

A magic experience

We talk to occupational therapist Ally Ross about her recent volunteering experience with Breathe Arts Health Research .

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54 OTnews June 2023 lly Ross , who graduated last summer with a BSc ( Hons ) in Occupational Therapy , is currently working within orthopaedics and cardiothoracics . While having always been interested in working in children ’ s services , she previously ‘ never got the opportunity ’ to complete a placement within this area of practice .

So , over the past two years , Ally has been attending continuing professional development events , undertaking organised shadowing , and networking with professionals working within paediatrics to gain as much experience and knowledge as possible to improve her chances of getting a job within this field in the future .

In 2021 , Ally attended the RCOT Specialist Section – Children , Young People and Families conference and was introduced to Breathe Arts Health Research ’ s ( Breathe ) Breathe Magic Intensive Therapy Programme . Here she shares her experience of subsequently volunteering with Breathe at one of its magic camps .

‘ The programme provides two weeks of intensive bimanual therapy to children with hemiplegia through the use of learning magic tricks ,’ she explains . ‘ During the conference they showed a video that demonstrated the bimanual improvements the young people made after just a fortnight of the camp and had a former young magician , a previous participant , talk about their experience of the programme .’

She adds : ‘ I was amazed by the outcomes of the programme and the research base surrounding it and instantly wanted to know how I could sign up to take part . I made sure to follow Breathe Arts Health Research on Twitter in order to keep an eye out for any opportunities coming up .

‘ Luckily , they eventually posted that they were accepting applications for volunteer magic trainers for their summer magic camp . I submitted my application that night and after an interview I was successful .’

The magic camp ran for the first two weeks of August , Monday to Friday , from 9am – 5pm . Ally reflects : ‘ It was based in London , so I stayed in student accommodation with four other volunteer magic trainers for the duration of the camp .

‘ There were roughly 16 young magicians and 20 volunteer magic trainers – all of whom were either student occupational therapists or qualified occupational therapists from all over the UK . It was great to meet so many new people all with a similar interest in working in paediatrics and everyone being so passionate about the occupational therapy .’

Ally explains that Joint Clinical Lead Occupational Therapists Becca Fortescue and Rebecca Johnson help deliver the programme : ‘[ They ] are both so knowledgeable about upper limb rehabilitation . They supervise the magic trainers throughout and advise them on how best to support the young magicians to perform a specific part of a magic trick , or meet a particular Canadian Occupational Performance Measure ( COPM ) goal that was set prior to the camp .

‘ They helped encourage the magic trainers to think outside the box and ensure we were thinking of fun and engaging ways of working with the young magicians .’

The magic camp runs with the support of magicians from the Magic Circle . ‘ All the magicians are extremely talented and skilled in activity analysis and breaking down the magic tricks into achievable steps ,’ Ally says . ‘ Who knew magicians and occupational therapists were so similar ?’

Attendees spent most of the time during camp learning the magic tricks and practising particular movements and sequences that some of the children were finding difficult , for example releasing objects from their hemiplegic hand or using their pincer grip to pick up smaller items , she explains .

‘ Even when we weren ’ t doing magic , we were still engaging in bimanual therapy by encouraging the young magicians to use both hands at every opportunity , for example during bimanual play . We did group parachute games , lots of variations

© Olivier Verriest via Getty Images