Hello occupational therapists across the world!

As I write this we are in the midst of a pandemic that has changed the way we live our everyday lives and has brought to the forefront like never before the importance of understanding the relationship between person, occupation and environment. Our relationships with one another, the way we inhabit our world and engage with technology have taken on new meanings – for some it has led to a sharpening of values and beliefs for others maybe ambivalence to the world. All demonstrating the unique ways that we go about making meaning through occupation in everyday life.

Lorrae Mynard an occupational therapist based in Melbourne, Australia complied a wonderful resource called The New Normal – Navigating everyday life during COVID-19 and described how we may take some time to choose what our own new normal looks like.

Reflecting on what we might want to start, stop or continue participating in as we navigate through the ever changing restrictions in our own societies. A cornerstone of our wonderful profession is reflection, to make sense of the what we do, why we do it and what we might do to enhance our practice – really it is all about learning. When you amplify this learning across our profession, we realise the potential to bring about change.

Occupational therapy has been cast into the spotlight, our understanding of the dynamic of participating in everyday life becoming crucial in supporting people, communities and populations to make these transitions to the new normal. Across the globe much is being done to demonstrate the value of occupational therapists and our fellow Allied Health Professionals in contributing to the health and wellbeing of our populations. So it is vital that we grow our next generation of professionals for the future.

Do you remember when you first started your own journey to becoming an Occupational Therapist, it may have been just a few years ago or maybe like me a couple of decades ago. Now fast forward to 2020, as we welcomed our new and returning cohorts at Coventry University in the middle of September it has been amidst all the uncertainty in the world with us all having to navigate the new regulations that govern our practices in academia and everyday life. So, one of the opportunities we want to give them is to engage in the world of occupational therapy that exists beyond the confines of a campus, but to do this we need YOU.

We have created this online space to share our work as academics at Coventry University, whether that is our research, leadership or learning and teaching activities, with aim of promoting collaborative practices. As part of this we are introducing BLOGS within our courses as a tool to support our students to learn and engage with the profession as a whole across the globe. But to also understand the experience of those that perhaps interact with occupational therapists in their daily life or workplace.

So if you are reading this we hope that you might spare some time to participate with us in building this safe and supportive collaborative space where we can learn together.

Collaboration allows us to know more than we are capable of knowing by ourselves.

Paul Solarz

Over the next few weeks we will be releasing a series of BLOGS focusing on professional values, skills and cultural perspectives of occupational therapy. In these BLOGS we are hoping to facilitate a discussion between our professional community and our new students, exploring all things connected to professional practice.

We hope that it will prove to be a great learning opportunity for our students but also all students across the globe starting out on their own journey in occupational therapy, and provide a space for practitioners to reflect and share their own stories of occupational therapy.

So watch this space !