History of the Association

In 1949 - The predecessor of the New Zealand Association of Occupational Therapists (Inc); the New Zealand Registered Association of Occupational Therapy (Inc) was established.  The name changed in the late 1960s.

Initially there were four branches: Auckland, Wellington, Canterbury and Westland / Otago until Hawkes Bay became a branch in 1964.

In 2009 - the Association will be 60 years old.

NZAOT Firsts

The New Zealand Association of Occupational Therapists became a foundation member of the World Federation of Occupational Therapists in 1952.

1953 saw the production of the first Journal.

In 1983 the Frances Rutherford Lecture Award was created to honour Frances Rutherford, principal of the school 1959-1972, and first qualified occupational therapy teacher.  This provided an opportunity for respected members of the profession to present and publish a keynote speech from the conference.

By 1994 the first executive director position, with a staffed national office was established in Wellington.  The development of the executive director post enabled the association to actively participate in parliamentary consultative processes and other consultations on behalf of the profession.

Around the same time, the branch structure was effectively removed, and replaced, with a council elected from all members.

1986 saw the first special interest group being established.  This was the ‘Geriatric special interest group’ which has now evolved into ‘Occupational therapists working with older people’.  By 2007 there were 12 special interest groups. These groups all have email discussion forums.

Membership and Profession Growth 1950 - 2007

In 1950 there were 71 New Zealand Association of Occupational Therapists members - on March 31 2007 we had 925 members. 

Year	Reported Members	Holders of APCs
1950	71	Not in existence
1960	128	98
1972	177	163
1985	355	597
1997	768	1172
2005	1020	1570
2007	925

Legend: Shows the growth in the size of the association and the profession as reported in years, selected for years when comparable data is accessible.

NZAOT Professional Development Events

The first biennial conference took place in 1950, in Auckland, and had three presenters. All of these were from the medical profession.

The 2006 Conference: 'Dancing Jandals: Occupational Therapy in the Pacific Rim' was the 25th NZAOT biennial conference and boasted 56 presenters and all with the exception of two were occupational therapists. 

Since 2001, NZAOT has begun to offer a major professional development opportunity in the alternate to conference years; these have been known as Symposium (2001); Community Conference (2003) and by 2005 these have become firmly entrenched as the NZAOT Clinical Workshops. Clinical Workshops have a practical focus with workshops more than lectures and presentations.

	Year	Location	Title/theme	Convenor
1	1950	Auckland	Refresher Course
2	1952	Auckland	Refresher Course
3	1954	Christchurch	Refresher Course
4	1956	Dunedin	Refresher Course (Conference)
5	1960	Wellington	Refresher Course (Conference)
6	1962	Christchurch	New trends and Developments in Occupational Therapy	BK Franklin
7	1964	Auckland	The Whole Man
8	1966	Dunedin	The Total Approach to Home Resettlement
9	1969	Christchurch
10	1971	Auckland		Heather Levack Loris Richter
11	1973	Wellington
12	1975	Dunedin
13	1977	Christchurch	O.T. 77	Neville Wellbourn
	1979	Palmerston Nth (did not proceed)
14	1981	Auckland	Potential	Mary Anne Boyd
15	1984	Dunedin	Quality assurance: the key to improvement	Molly Ford
16	1987	Wellington	Our consumers, our practice, our selves	Cynthia Growden
17	1990	Christchurch	Ages and stages	Elizabeth Saville-Smith
18	1992	Auckland	Value for Money	Eleanor Browne
19	1994	Nelson	Focus on practice: assessments and intervention	Janet Taylor
20	1996	Hamilton	Making it happen	Margaret Mc Michael
21	1998	Dunedin	Common Threads	Lorraine Whitwell
22	2000	Rotorua	Haere Whakamanu - Stepping forward	Carlynne Curd
23	2002	Auckland	Refine, refresh, renew	Valerie Wright -St Clair
24	2004	Christchurch	Face to face in a changing world	Shirley Milligan and Terrie Hunt
25	2006	Wellington	Dancing Jandals; Occupational Therapy in the Pacific Rim	Elizabeth Rowland
26	2008	Palmerston North	Inspiration. Energy. Action.	Rachel Tatham

If you can help fill in the gaps please contact us.

This section is based on information from:

Wilson L.H. ( 2004) Role differentiation in a professionalising occupation: the case of occupational therapy New Zealand.