Cheshire Occupational Therapy Conference

I had a great time at the conference today which looked at celebrating the achievements in the past ten years, and considering how OT services can be modernised in times to come.

I really enjoyed giving a presentation on "E"nabling and talked about the ways in which web2.0 can be useful to occupational therapists and our service users.

I will post a more thorough summary and reflection on the day but as part of the talk I urged people to "dip their toe in" and have a look at one of the resources I mentioned. As such I wanted to put a quick post up and invite any of the people who were at the presentation today who might stop by the blog to just leave a quick comment.

At the bottom of this post just click "comments" and fire away. I would really welcome your feedback - and feel free to be honest (you can leave anonymous posts!)

webSIG

Following discussions at RAatE this year I have attempted to contact services who assess for and provide electronic assistive technologies to create an online networking space to further improve communication between similar services. I’m sure we are all discussing similar issues of service inclusion/exclusion criteria, keeping pace with technological advances and adapting to funding challenges. As the services we work for are spread across such a broad geographical area creating a viable SIG for face to face meetings can be a challenge. So I set up a webSIG using Ning and a we already have a few members from different services which is exciting. I quite Ning as its easy to use, add features and rearrange. That said......

I must temper my enthusiasm with the knowledge that it may not be so well embraced by the people I am trying to reach. For numerous reasons people may not feel they have the time, inclination, skills or desire to share information to want to join in. However I am by nature blindly optimistic so I'm sure it will be a resounding sucess :-)

If you work for a EAT service please get in touch for details of how to join.

Many thanks to Possum!

Who have agreed to sponsor my fees for the 2009 BAOT/COT conference. Maybe it was the temptation of publicity through my blog :-) anyway it made me day to know I would definitely be able to attend the conference and I am really excited about doing the roundtable session. I attended the conference in 2006 in Cardiff and really found it an inspirational event. One of the most interesting and though provoking sessions was one I sat in on by accident which had a mental health focus. One presenter talked about CBT and how she saw that this fitted to OT, it made me really reflect on the impact on psychological/psychiatric implications of the long term (and often progressive) conditions of the clients I work with. So thanks Possum, I look forward with great enthusiasm to the opportunity you have given me!

RAatE 2008

RAatE - Recent Advances in Assitive Tecchnology and Engineering annual conference (see previous post "Conferences, Conferences, Conferences!") held at the Health Desgin and Technology Institute at Coventry University - Very brief post to link to the paper I presented at this event.

Conferences, conferences and more conferences!

I've just come back from presenting at RAatE 2008 at Coventry University. I talked about the a unique scheme our team operates to optimise the flow of communication between ourselves (as a specialist tertiary service) and local community OTs. As with all public speaking in was a bit nerve wracking but very worthwhile. It was interesting to learn about similar services in Ireland and the developing AAC/PC access service in East Kent

In September I was fortunate enough to attention the Communication Matters annual symposium. I a newbie in the field of Augmentative and Alternative Communication and it was really useful to gain such up to date ideas and information. CM is a truly personal and friendly event with many AAC users and their families attending.

I'm looking forward to attending the COT/BAOT annual conference next year. I went in 2007 and found it a genuinely inspiring event. I'm sure the same will be true this year and I have the added excitement of hosting a round table session with a colleague looking at the current and potential input of OTs to Augmentative and Alternative Communication.

Also on the agenda for next year is a workshop at the Cheshire Occupational Therapy Conference. Having previously worked for Cheshire County Council it will be a good opportunity to catch up with old work friends. I'm still not sure of the exact focus of the workshop but there is plenty of time to decide! The conference is a great example of collaborative learning where therapists from health and social care from across the county gather.

If you had told me when I was training that in my OT future I would be presenting at conferences to large groups I would have laughed. It goes to show that being excited about OT and pushing yourself to do the things that interest you, but scare you at the same time can be really positive. I find attending conferences a great luxury, taking time out from the day job to indulge myself in learning!