OTA QLD State Conference 2014

This year’s OTA QLD Division State Conference was held last weekend at Noosa on the Sunshine Coast and it was all set to be one of the best yet. There are very few things to complain about when your in a part of the world as laid back and beautiful as this and I can’t help but feel that this vibe was carried across the whole conference.

The formalities were kicked off by OTA QLD Divisional Chair Dr Kieran Broome, who officially opened the conference.

 

Jonothan (Jon Jon) Rivero - Keynote - Create youR Awesome

So I make no apologies for saying that this Keynote was THE greatest I have ever been apart of. I say “been a part of” very deliberately in this case too. This wasn’t your typical keynote where someone comes on stage and delivers some high impact, interesting, motivational speech about a project or an idea that they hold some expertise in. This Keynote WAS Occupational Therapy. Jon Jon entered the stage and the first thing he does is he plays two songs (Jackson 5 & Katie Perry) and gets the WHOLE room dancing along to them with him, mimicing his dance moves from the stage.

After having fleeting thoughts that this keynote may be some kind of gym class he suddenly moves into some slam poetry. and then quickly followed this by beatboxing through a harmonica!

Completely bamboozled and amazed by the sheer range of skills and seemingly effortless engagement potential of this man, he speaks…

The concepts that Jon Jon talks about really spoke to me. They seem to instantly simplify highly academic constructs that I’ve known about for some time but seemed to be somewhat complicated. The basic framework being: “You are awesome. Share your awesome.” Simple right? but so very complex in nature. A strengths based framework that essentially sees no boundaries or cultural barriers. Take what you’re good at it, use it to develop yourself and then share that with others. beautifully simple.

He also developed on this concept of “awesome,” explaining the context specificity of a person’s awesome and its fluid nature over time. He explained this using the “Awesome Matrix.” The aim being to hit the centre of the target and truly believe, “I am Awesome.” At other times you may be in the head-space of, “I can be awesome,” or even further out by thinking, “I’m not awesome right now but I want to be awesome.” If you miss the target completely then you land on “I am not Awesome.” Again such a simple powerful tool that can be used to gauge a persons current head-space around themselves but could also be used to show progress and efficacy of intervention.

Another concept that Jon Jon discussed was the need for connection by the kids he works with. Qi Creative works with kids, families, schools and anyone else involved with the kids to help facilitate these connections using the individuals “awesome” as a tool to do this.

This really spoke to me on terms of being 100% pure occupation based practice, which is a real passion of mine. It’s not focusing directly on a person’s deficits but instead using what people love and engaging them in these occupations as the therapeutic modality. This to me is OT at its purest. This is what separates us from other professions and this is how I want to practice. With my recent thoughts turning towards the idea of private practice this keynote inspired me more then anything prior with how I wanted my practice to actually operate.

At the end Jon Jon spoke of a charity project that he and his wife, Paula Rivero, had started called the Balikbayan Project. The aim is to work with children in the Philippines to build resilience through positive self-expression. It was obvious to everyone in the room that this was something very close to his heart and I encourage everyone to check it out and support where you feel you can.

I spent a LOT of time picking Jon Jon & Paula’s brains about OT and their company after this presentation. Although Qi Creative is a company that works with children and young adults, the concepts presented spoke to me as being easily applicable and usable in an adult mental health demographic. The use and promotion of ‘play’ to identify a persons strengths and passions is something that I feel could be a powerful tool when implemented correctly in my field of practice. This is definitely something I plan to experiment and implement in my current practice and continue to investigate how I can develop this into my own practice.

Couldn’t let him get away without a shameless fan pic :p

 

Tim Barlott - Engaging Remote Communities Using Text Messaging

Tim Barlott recently relocated from Alberta Canada to Brisbane for his work. He presented a series of four projects that used the accessible technology of SMS to engage with remote and socially isolated communities.

Tim‘s mandate is the use of cheap accessible technology to engage with these communities and his research lead him to the tried and tested use of SMS. He presented stats that showed the huge number of people, even in developing countries, that have mobile phones compared with the internet etc. He also showed that on terms of communication methods SMS is one of the most opened and viewed once delivered. For these reasons Tim identifies SMS as one of the most accessible forms of mass communication and technology available world wide. The other benefit identified was that for such an accessible mass communication tool the cost was extremely low. Tim estimated that a project could be setup and ready to run for as little as a “couple hundred dollars.”

Tim went on to use the workshop to show the how the backend of the SMS system he uses for these projects actually works. He setup a demo “project” in the room and used the subscription service to allow the participants to SMS subscribe to the demo so we were able to see exactly how it all worked.

We were all encouraged to think of an example of how we could use such a system. My mind straight away started rolling around ideas such as:
“what if we had a system where people could text in and subscribe to certain keywords pertaining to mental health to receive regular updates about services and activities running relevant to that stream.”

“what if I could setup a service that would allow subscription updates to the various projects I was involved in such as ROAM”

“What about a subscription positive affirmation project”

“What if we ran an SMS networking project for people with a lived experience in MH”

Needless to say I had to quell my brain down a bit to concentrate on the rest of the workshop! My biggest revolation was that this technology is wide spread, with huge uptake, costs relatively nothing…..why isn’t it used more to reach out to people or to allow people to reach out for help?”

This is a concept that I will most definitely be taking back to my district and if there is interest will be contacting Tim for guidance. 🙂

 

The Great Debate “OT’s are Political Animals”

Something that was a bit different and awesomely entertaining was “The Great Debate.” Part serious argument, part satire this was a really light and fun way to end a long day of listening, learning and networking. Teams were made up of various OTA staff and members and was chaired over by “Your Honor” OTA CEO Rachel Norris (in disguise lol)

The event actually highlighted a different question for me. Rather then are OT’s political animals, i began thinking why don’t we identify as political beings. After all, in this current changing health climate politics is becoming more and more engrained in what we do and how we do it, and if we sit back passively we will be TOLD what to do without any consolation for our unique skill and perspective on peoples health. Event those of us who advocate for our clients within the current system are engaging in politics, whether we want to recognise it as such or not.

 

Angela Lockwood - Keynote - Decide. How Making Better Choices Will Keep You Moving Forward in Work and Life

Angela took the stage at the end of the second day of OTAQLD14. She was bubbly, full of energy, and confident. It was very obvious that she was confident on stage talking in front of many people. She started her Keynote with a selfie lol.

Photo Credit: @angelockwood

Then she began by giving practical examples of the shear number of decisions that people have to make on a daily basis, intertwined with her own sense of comedic interpretation that really lightened the mood and kept people focused during her presentation.

She discussed the concept of “decision fatigue” and how making our lives overly complicated with hundreds and thousands of simple decisions day to day was impairing our ability to make quality choices during large decisions but also leading us down the path towards burnout. This topic really took my interest as it was only a week prior that my partner (a teacher) had been telling me about this exact concept after she learned about it at a PD she was at.

Photo Credit: @angelockwood

Angela went on to talk about some simple steps to help avoid decision fatigue. She talked about having a core focus on the “things” you are really good at and used a target as a metaphor to explain this. She encouraged us to try and work within this centre circle of complete competence. She explained that there are other people in our network that are good at “all the other stuff” that falls in the outer circle, “so get them to do that.” Angela talks that the reason people burn out is that they are constantly trying to work within the outer circle that is outside their core scope. Then she gave us the best advice.

“you don’t have to do everything.”

This is something that really hit me as I’ve spent most of the day prior and the past couple years of my career talking to OTs about focusing in on our core value, Occupation. What I’ve learned through this process is that OT’s are a group of people that often really struggle to find that professional ‘cutoff.’ We really struggle to let go of certain tasks and instead try and do EVERYTHING ourselves.

Now I know that Angela was talking about this concept from a personal and business perspective but as soon as she said it i related it to my work with ROAM and other projects. I did purchase her book after this keynote and I’m excited to see what other hints and tips I can gain from it in order to “simplify my life.”

 

Presentations I was involved in at #OTAQLD14

Amelia Di Tommaso & Brock Cook - Lost in the wilderness: A survival guide for an occupation-focused therapist

Cook, B., Di Tommaso, A. (2014). Lost in the wilderness: A survival guide for an occupation-focused therapist. Paper presented at the ‘Queensland Occupational Therapy Conference: Engage, Inspire, Advance’, Noosa, Australia, October 25

Photo Credit: @virtualOT

James Naismith & Brock Cook - Reclaiming Occupation As Means (ROAM): Occupational language at work

Cook, B., Naismith, J. (2014). Reclaiming Occupation As Means (ROAM): Occupational language at work. Paper presented at the ‘Queensland Occupational Therapy Conference: Engage, Inspire, Advance’, Noosa, Australia, October 25

Photo Credit: @jonjonrivero

Frances Worster & Brock Cook - Client Based Practice: Essential to the OT Discourse, but is it understood?

Cook, B., Worster, F. (2014). Client Based Practice: Essential to the OT Discourse, but is it understood?. Paper presented at the ‘Queensland Occupational Therapy Conference: Engage, Inspire, Advance’, Noosa, Australia, October 25

Photo Credit: @jimmynai

Brock Cook & Amelia Di Tommaso - The power of language and the current promotion of the profession

Cook, B., Di Tommaso, A. (2014). The power of language and the current promotion of the profession. Paper presented at the ‘Queensland Occupational Therapy Conference: Engage, Inspire, Advance’, Noosa, Australia, October 25

 

Workshop I was involved in at #OTAQLD14

Reclaiming Occupation as Means (ROAM) – Creating Communities of Occupation-Centred Occupational Therapists

Cook, B., Naismith, J. & Pereira, R. B. (2014). Reclaiming Occupation As Means (ROAM): Creating communities of occupation-centred occupational therapists. Paper presented at the ‘Queensland Occupational Therapy Conference: Engage, Inspire, Advance’, Noosa, Australia, October 25

Photo Credit: @virtualOT

Overall I had an amazing time in beautiful Noosa and took more away from this conference then I have from almost any other. The network connections I made I will cherish for years to come and the impact on my clinical practice is almost immeasurable. I’d love to say I bit thankyou to everyone involved in organising and running the conference, to all those whom I met for the very first time, to those who I was catching up with again and also to all of those that I didn’t get a chance to hang out with, as without you it just wouldn’t have been the same.