Ichabod's Day

I wonder how many times in my 37 years I've wished someone would pay me to stay at home. In a way with the current Covid19 situation my wish came true - I have been working from home since March lockdown so technically was paid for staying at home (be careful what you wish for is my motto!!). But... working _from_ home is very different to working _at_ home. Previously, some of my work has been able to be done working at home (marking, planning etc) so can be planned for on days where the diary is not too full of other things and you can concentrate on the task in hand, and yes, let's face it - the odd down time day enables occupational balance and wellbeing.  Switch now to working _from_ home. In this event you replicate everything that would normally be done in the work environment - meetings, teaching, tutorials, ad hoc phone calls, queries from colleagues and/or students, planning, marking, responding to latest changes to regs etc  and now add:  - dog wanting to ........

  So, the previous post left me on my way to Chile to present at the World Federation of Occupational Therapy Congress 2010 and to meet my fellow contributors for the first time in real world. A great adventure only marred by the fact that Sarah's case didn't turn up in Chile the whole time we were there - I wrote a poem about it. Thank goodness I always overpack and was able to share my wardrobe with her. I documented our exploits on our professional blog - can be found in the link below if you are interested  http://frederickroad.blogspot.com/2010/05/of-earthquakes-lost-baggage-and-world.html http://frederickroad.blogspot.com/2010/05/problem-shared-makes-two.html http://frederickroad.blogspot.com/2010/05/of-planning-networking-and-fond.html How fantastic it was to finally meet Anita Hamilton (Australia), Karen Jacobs (USA) and of course to see Merrolee Penman again (Aotearoa/New Zealand - but now in Sydney). Unfortunately Susan Burwash (Canada) was unable to make it this ti...

  This next period spans 20 years so I have decided to split into two posts. This will cover to 2009/10. So, in October 2000 I joined the team at University of Salford. After a short period of induction I was given my areas of teaching and was really excited to get going. One of the modules I had been given was called Managerial & Professional Contexts of Practice - a final year module which certainly played to my experiences. I think I may have read somewhere, or maybe someone told me, I don't remember, but somewhere I had the idea that I needed a gimmick in my teaching. Something to make things memorable for the students. I decided that each of my lectures should include an animal, so we had Geese when looking at Team work, bees for committment and monkeys for managing situations (if you are not familiar with "not my circus, not my monkey"  please see this link). The students seemed to enjoy this and the first cohort even made me a monkey dressed in OT uniform as a ...

  Moving to the north west of England on a cold, wet day in January 1991 was an experience. We were moving to a small, one-bedroom flat in the grounds of one of the local hospitals (with it's own duck pond) and so much of our stuff was going into storage temporarily - as it turned out it was two years before I saw a lot of my things again - it felt like christmas when we finally received it all. We were also unable to have pets in the flat so my two beloved cats went to stay with my parents - however after 2 years they had settled and it was unfair to move them again - so they stayed.   Everything that was staying in the flat was dumped into one room.  As the removal men drove away - I looked around and then burst into floods of tears - what had I done!  Make the bed - my Mum always used to say the first thing to do was make the bed - then you always had a place to go that was calm and ready for you when it all got too much.   We soon settled into the ...

  me in the workshop  Parts 1 & 2 are linked below if you missed them and want to catch up. Starting my new role in a brand new facility was such a privilege. The unit was still in development and it was a month before our first patient was admitted. I imagine we were an overwhelming sight when he entered the ward - so many nurses, me, a physio etc all eager to work with our first patient! Anyway, first things first, training for working in a secure unit. How lucky were we to have the founder of Ethical Control & Restraint on our doorstep. Tom Starling, at that time a prison officer at Blundeston Prison had developed Control & Restraint based on the principles and techniques of Ju-Jitsu. He was/is such a character and drove around in a reliant robin car.  http://www.eccruk.com/about/ His techniques are practiced by thousands today both in prison services and in the health services. We learned breakaway techniques and how to control & restrain someone in a ...

  In my previous blog I ended with me gaining my first role as a fully fledged occupational therapist in September 1983. This was a Basic Grade rotational post in the Norfolk & Norwich Health Authority. My first rotation was in Mental Health at Hellesdon hospital in the Medium/Long stay area ( we liked a nice solid label in those times!). The Science bit:   Deinstitutionalisation had started in the 1960s but really took hold by the late 1970s/early 80s. Now, 1983 brought 2 major pieces of legislation that impacted on practice. The Mental Health Act (1983) and The Griffiths Report (1983). What these did was to give more rights to those with mental health diagnosis and began to change the structure of the health service with more devolution to local level.   The impact on practice was to start a move towards what eventually became the Community Care Act (1990) moving many patients from the long stay wards of the old mental health asylums and into the community. Me...