RCOT Annual Conference and Exhibition 2019

Hello Everyone!

My name is Vivian Ng and I am a final year MSc occupational therapy student at Brunel University London. I am also an international student. I wanted to share my thoughts and reflections on RCOT Annual Conference and Exhibition 2019.

It was my first time attending such a large scale occupational therapy event. One of the biggest gains for me attending this conference, was learning about the national position of occupational therapy and where are we heading as a profession. The world is changing,  and how we perceive health is changing. Therefore there needs to be a shift in mindset in how we tackle health-related problems. It was exciting to learn that occupational therapists are valued and there are more of us working in social care and other emerging areas of practice (to name a few, perinatal mental health services, stalking intervention service, fire and rescue service etc.) I enjoyed every single presentation about how occupational therapists are exploring new ways of working with occupation as the focus of their work.

I believe that occupational therapists are passionate people who wish to make an impact on peoples' lives, with a sense of justice at the back of our minds. Occupational therapy isn't the biggest profession of them all, and I find we often need to explain our role. At the conference, I felt the power of people sharing the same belief coming together, connected by our passion for occupation.  One of the most inspiring presentations was from an occupational therapists who noticed a gap in youth mental health service in rural areas. We heard how she started from scratch and came up with such an amazing and innovative idea to turn a camper van into a mobile therapy room. I truly think she embodies the creativity and spirit of occupational therapy. 

As a whole, joining the conference was a great learning experience. I am going to graduate in September to officially start the exciting journey of working as an occupational therapist. This experience at the conference is going to keep reminding and motivating me why I believe in the power of occupation, and how we can practice occupational therapy without borders.

Thank you for reading,

Vivian