This blog post has been sitting in my drafts folder for some time now, since ‘decolonisation’ became a “new” buzzword for the occupational therapy profession via The 2018 WFOT (World Federation of Occupational Therapy) Congress in Africa which catapulted the concept into the spotlight, causing murmurs of controversy in the international occupational therapy community. The long delay from idea to…
Category: Occupational Therapy
Privilege is not a Bad Word and “Checking Your Privilege” is not a Bad Thing
I’ve encountered a fair number of people who get incredibly defensive when the word “privileged” is used to describe them. I think a lot of it boils down to misunderstanding of the word, or perhaps they lack awareness of how they are situated in the world relative to everybody else around them. I have also encountered people who perceive the term…
Start with Stigma: talking about mental health
Talking about mental health and illness is starting to be a thing in Malaysia, people are becoming better informed and our government is also actively talking about the matter. I *was* of the opinion that the more we talk about these topics the closer we would be to developing some solutions. I was wrong. Recently a friend of mine starting…
Top 3 Reasons to study Occupational Therapy @ Brunel University London
Brunel University London is home to the prestigious and historic London School of Occupational Therapy. Established in 1934, it is now housed in the Mary Seacole Building. (Fun fact: Mary Seacole was a Jamaican nurse and businesswoman. She is widely celebrated for her work with the wounded during the Crimean War and also for combatting racial prejudice. To learn more…
2017 Occupational Therapy Education Reforms in the UK
It is an interesting time to be in the United Kingdom as their higher education system is going through some significant reform, resulting in changes to the student intake which then subsequently affects how programmes are run. I have a special interest in this because of my work as an occupational therapy educator. A little bit of background to occupational…