'Harvesting our catch, and resetting our net'- a review of the NZAOT 2009 Clinical Workshops

Content to come - see link on right for list of presentations available

 

'Innovate Motivate' – a review of the NZAOT 2007 Clinical Workshops

You know when you’ve arrived in Cromwell. Prominent, on the roadside is the “big fruit sculpture” welcoming you to the stone fruit capital of the South Island.

The opening of the clinical workshops was shared by convener Fiona Dysart and Cromwell mayor, Malcolm Macpherson. Malcolm reminded us that Central Otago is a place of extremes, being both one of the coldest and the hottest in New Zealand. No stranger to health care services, Malcolm has also been a long time elected member of the Otago District Health Board. He emphasized the need for quality service and challenged us to think about “what that might mean” and “how do we ensure we provide a quality service”

And so the clinical workshops were opened, and quality was in huge supply with a series of “quality” workshops that were interactive, fun, educative, innovative and motivating with opportunities for sharing, and facilitated discussion that flowed into morning and afternoon teas.

The venue was stunning, one presenter opened the curtains to maximise the views of rolling green hills that graduated up to snow covered mountain peaks.

Gwynneth Butler, Alexandra Community Ministries Coordinator and opening speaker, considered purposeful activity from a non-occupational therapy perspective. This presentation showed how vision and passion were turned into meaning and purpose with a community gardening project. People from all walks and stages of life are included with the goals of learning and relearning, caring and being cared for, working, playing and participating together in meaningful activity.

Innovative – yes. Motivating – most certainly!

Some workshops opened with challenges: Accreditation for assessors – is it necessary?. The aging population: are we up for it? Performance Management and Performance Improvement: how do we analyse and be specific about the performance issues at hand?

Other workshops were innovative: the establishment of new initiatives and the delivery of these were shared. As examples; ACC are changing their focus of service delivery to clients who are likely to have complex and long-term injury related needs to being client needs centred. Escalating costs and poor outcomes with the current system have been two of the drivers of this initiative. Enable NZ is looking for consistency throughout NZ with the introduction of the new MOH equipment manual. This aims at matching client need with specifications and product, crucial to provision of appropriate equipment. There were opportunities to share views on support workers and how they provide their services, how this is viewed, how this can be improved in order to ensure our clients receive a ‘quality service that is client centered and effective.

I take this opportunity to thank the NZAOT council members who do a great job. It was disappointing to see the AGM struggle to get a quorum. For those who chose not to attend the AGM, you may wish to consider the ethics of missing this if you were funded by your employer to attend the workshops.

For non members and members this is an opportunity to support and acknowledge the long hours and hard work done by volunteers whom represent our profession at the highest level. Without the NZAOT Council, Occupational Therapy would be poorly represented as a profession, nationally, and at government level – this is the place to make change happen!

Thanks also to the organizers for a well organized, smooth - running, relaxed clinical workshops with great learning opportunities that truly reflected the Innovate Motivate theme.

A parting thought, as one speaker stated – “Don’t just dream it – do it” and “Have a ‘fruitful life”.

Bella Clark NZROT