November, 2024
Welcome back to Be Well Occupational Therapy’s monthly newsletter. I bet you missed us right?! We’ll be debriefing the goings on of the last month and talking about what we’re doing behind the scenes of Be Well OT. This issue we’re talking OT Week, our amazingly talented client Jimmy and how OT Clare is bettering herself and her practice.
OT WEEK 2024: CELEBRATING 80 YEARS OF CONNECTION
2024 marks 80 years since the formation of the first Occupational Therapists Club in Australia. First founded in 1944, the Occupational Therapists Club later became the Australian Association of Occupational Therapists in 1945. Occupational therapy was first practiced in Western Australia in 1942 during the Second World War at the 110th Military Hospital. To think we started off with basket weaving!
It is also so important to acknowledge how much mental health occupational therapy has evolved, now it has become something that people understand, and they recognise how mental health and psychosocial diagnoses need to be supported from an occupational lens. We celebrated with some sweet treats in our Friday meeting, some mindful and cheeky OT related colouring and reflecting on just how far we’ve come.
CLIENT FEATURE: INCREDIBLE WORK FROM JIMMY
Jimmy is one of Be Well OT’s beloved clients and kindly shared his recent mental health-based art exhibition with us. The theme was ‘Fiesta’ and boy did Jimmy deliver! The artworks speak for themselves. Art is therapeutic for Jimmy, it keeps him happy, relaxed and comforted. Jimmy says it soothes and nurtures his soul and inner spirits.
We’ve taken a quote from Jimmy’s artist biography that encapsulates his spirit, “Although I am profoundly deaf in my left ear, this does not mean that I am not able or that I don’t have the ability or capacity to produce paintings with pride, passion and wisdom.” Keep up the amazing work Jimmy, we are so lucky to work with you!
HOW OT CLARE IS BETTERING HER PRACTICE
With the re-release of our monthly newsletters, we thought we’d share what our OTs are doing to better themselves and their practice to enhance their role within our team and their client outcomes.
In light of OT Clare’s new position as our very own clinical education support OT she engaged in a two day workshop facilitated by Michelle Bahari on professional supervision. Ahead of the launch of Be Well OT’s very own new grad support program Clare sought to build skills in supporting supervisees. Clare also wanted to learn models and evidence-based theories around supervision.
This will help Clare in her role as the workshop provided frameworks to support reflection on supervision processes, opportunities for informal mentoring and ways to support meaningful supervision in our team. Clare’s highlight of the workshop was learning further about the concept of ‘psychological safety’ and the balance between support and challenge in the context of supervision.
Well folks, that’s all we’ve got for this month! Stay tuned for next month. To tide you over, we’ll leave you with an ‘OTeaser’ if you will:
Unscramble this therapeutic approach (hint two words):