CEO’s Report

Samantha Hunter | OTA CEO

Exciting developments continue at OTA, with many new initiatives over the past year now coming to fruition.

As always, OTA channels its efforts in areas that will better promote and protect the profession, and enhance or ease the ways in which members practise occupational therapy.

I am exceptionally proud of a number of new projects that will come to life in coming months, and hugely grateful for the energy, time and care that OTA staff, members and collaborators have dedicated to their tasks.

By the time this issue of Connections is printed, OTA will have released a preview of its publication Doing Our Best – a beautiful collection of stories about occupation and how it can help people navigate periods of uncertainty and hardship, like the pandemic, bushfires, floods and droughts. As natural disasters often create mental stress, these stories are a lovely reminder of the benefits of occupation during difficult and traumatic times. The authors have been incredibly generous to share their stories with us and our wider audience.

OTA is sharing its Federal Election Playbook through social media and direct representation, educating sitting and aspiring politicians about the profession’s value to the health landscape across the entire population. While election time always provides a great opportunity to make specific requests to the Government and Opposition, the work of advocacy is constant and ongoing, and OTA is continually educating, informing and occasionally agitating. It specifically represents the interests of the profession at state and federal levels,

and through the myriad of bureaucratic schemes that enmesh health care.

OTA president and chair Associate Professor Carol McKinstry has reported about the forthcoming Thinking Ahead: The Future of Mental Health and Occupational Therapy paper. The paper has more than 30 recommendations for OTA to consider as it plans a road map for supporting, advocating and positioning this important area of practice into the future. We enthusiastically look forward to sharing the paper with the profession, and important stakeholders and supporters who will help create a better understanding of mental health occupational therapy – especially at a time of significant community need, and fortunately with an increase in funding across many jurisdictions.

I hope you all find a quiet moment to enjoy reading Connections – to learn something new, recognise a name or face, catch up on news from the association, and reflect on the profession’s many great opportunities and achievements over the recent past, and the bright future that lies ahead.