First steps to developing an Indigenous Occupational Therapy workforce

Lin Oke, Tamar Paluch, Naomi Priest (KOTS) & Glenda Thorpe (VACCHO) On behalf of the KOTS committee

What is OT?

“Occupational therapy is a profession concerned with

promoting health and well being through occupation

…” OCCUPATION = all things that people need and want to do “…The primary goal of occupational therapy is to

enable

people to

participate

in the activities of

everyday life

…” World Federation of Occupational Therapy

Philosophy of OT

• Client-centered • Enabling, Empowering • Person-environment relationship • Culturally sensitive • Holistic • ‘Doing’ philosophy • Remediative & preventative World Federation of Occupational Therapy

Aboriginal definition of health

'Aboriginal health is not just the physical well being of an individual but is the social, emotional and cultural well being of the whole community in which each

individual is able to achieve their full potential

thereby bringing about the total well being of their community. It is a whole-of-life view and includes the cyclical concept of life-death-life .’

NAHS, 1989

OTs & Indigenous health

• Health inequities experienced by Indigenous Australians • Need for health promotion, preventative & remediative approaches • Contribution of OT to addressing these inequities • Health-disability-culture  unique occupational needs

OT Workforce Needs

• <0.1% of OT workforce identifies as Indigenous Australian (Lowe & O’Kane, 2004) • Need for more allied health working in Indigenous health • Victorian workforce analysis based on 1:1200 workforce: population ratio for allied health (VACCHO 2007) Lowest population estimate 2006 10 Highest population estimate 36 2009 12 43

Vision of KOTS

KOTS

(Koori Occupational Therapy Scheme) seeks to actively encourage and advocate for

increased Indigenous representation in the occupational therapy profession

. Our motivation to create this scheme is borne of a deep commitment to the knowledge that Indigenous health professionals are best positioned to deliver meaningful and accessible services to Indigenous populations.

Objectives of KOTS

1.

To increase the number of Indigenous OTs 2.

To increase awareness of Indigenous health and its social, cultural, political and historical contexts within the OT profession 3.

To increase awareness of the role of OT within Aboriginal health services

Current endeavours

1. Increasing numbers of Indigenous OTs

•Promoting OT as a career choice •Establishing Scholarship support scheme •Coordinating work placements for students •Establishing bank of OTs to mentor & coach Koori students

Strategic planning, sustainability, funding

Current endeavours

2. Awareness within OT field

•Publications & Presentations •Advocate for improved OT curriculum •Indigenous health info pack •Professional development for practitioners

Strategic planning, sustainability, funding

Current endeavours

3. Awareness within Indigenous health

•Publications & presentations •Work with VACCHO on AHW training

Strategic planning, sustainability, funding

Future directions

1. Increasing numbers of Indigenous OTs

•Supporting Koori students via a scholarship support scheme •Advocating for improved recruitment & retention of Koori students

Advocating for a cross-disciplinary effort to address these issues across the allied health spectrum

Future directions

2. Awareness within OT field

•Advancing a national association position paper on Indigenous health •Advocating for a review of Indigenous health content in OT curricula

Advocating for a cross-disciplinary effort to address these issues across the allied health spectrum

Future directions

3. Awareness within Indigenous health

•Advocating for the availability of OT services within AHS

Advocating for a cross-disciplinary effort to address these issues across the allied health spectrum

KEEP IN TOUCH

Feel free to contact us with any feedback, guidance or support [email protected]

http://www.annawearnetrust.org.au/kots.doc

With support from the Anna Wearne Trust & VACCHO