the OT show
Inspiration and education at the
Occupational Therapy Show N o v e m b e r 2 0 1 5 s aw t h e t h i r d Occupational Therapy Show take place at the NEC, Birmingham. It is the UK’s largest dedicated CPD education and trade event, solely for occupational therapists and last year it attracted over 4000 OTs from all over the country and from a wide range of specialist areas, to educate, inspire and raise the profile for such an amazing allied healthcare profession.
service to users. She challenged the audience to grasp all of the opportunities that arise both in and outside of the profession as this impacts on OTs personally and professionally and would therefore make the indiviudual a better therapist. Helena reflected on her lifetime in occupational therapy and spoke about her positive feelings for the future of the profession, as long as OTs engage with CPD, decision makers and fellow colleagues.
Kate Sheehan, director of the OT Service, has shared her experience of the show here and has highlighted some of the seminars she attended.
Also on day one, Gaynor Sadlo from Brighton University, presented on ‘Neuroscience explains the therapeutic power of occupation’. She demonstrated how during the last decade brain imaging techniques have discovered many processes, revealing that the principles of occupational therapy are supported by neuroscience. How skill development builds brain tissue to change structure and function. MRI studies reveal how skill (especially manual activity) promotes reorganisation of dentrites (synaptogenesis), increased density of supportive glial cells, and increased vascularisation.
There were over 55 hours of accredited CPD education on offer which stretched across four separate streams including: • Physical • Mental health and learning difficulties • Children and families • Innovation in practice and shaping the future.
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On top of this were some high quality exhibitor led sessions in two separate theatres, as well as on stand CPD education from the likes of Handicare, Safespaces, Made2aid and many more, covering a broad range of subjects from core principals of posture management, sourcing suitable products for your client to challenging behaviour and keeping clients safe.
Gaynor discussed how human beings seem to be rewarded, through ancient biopeptides and hormones that all animals experience, for example, when engaging in survival-related eating or mating. However, for us engaging in complex occupations also seems to be rewarded.
With packed theatres over the two days some of the highlights included, on the first day, Helena Culshaw, independent OT and a past chair of the College of Occupational Therapists, who spoke about her 40 years of practice ‘Lifelong Learning - the long and winding road’. Here, Helena expressed learning never stops as it enables OTs to provide the most effective
The hypothesis here is that engaging our true occupational nature brings a form of self-medication v i a s u b s t a n ce s l i k e d o p a m i n e, e n d o r p h i n s, serotonin, oxytocin, and adrenaline, which form our complex reward/pleasure system. For example, the hippocampus (the learning centre) has opiod receptors. It might be that lack of participation in today’s world
-magazine.co.uk
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