Ron, I have to reply to your writings on the rights of healthcare and your quote by Adrian Rogers. I live in a country where healthcare is free and available for all, and where there is welfare available for anyone who needs it. Funnily enough the people claiming it number around 5% of the population, despite the fact that anyone could go get it. Of those I'd guess about 4% are the ones Adrian is talking about, those who do not want to work and are the professionally unemployed.
The remaining 94% of us are occupational beings, we get value and meaning in our lives by occupying ourselves meaningfully. This is the very cornerstone of occupational therapy surely that people want to engage in meaningful activities? In our culture the form that that has taken is employment 40 hours a week as well as our hobbies, social life and interests. I'd be surprised if other countries with similar systems i.e. England, Australia, most of Europe, Ireland, Canada (I think?) didn't have similar situations. Recession withstanding as a blip in time. Healthcare should be a right for all. There is an idea that I love but will no doubt misquote that goes "As a society we are judged not by the way we treat our peers, but by the way we treat our most vulnerable members". That is one of the cornerstones of civilisation. I also find that this issue that as a profession you are not recognised is not a worldwide phenomenon, we are very well thought of in countries I have worked such as Australia, UK and New Zealand. Not that it has always been this way but in my short career I have already seen a vast improvement. Where I worked in Ireland was very hard work though for the same reasons as you discuss. What I did to address that in my own workplace was hold regular in-services to the staff about OT research and practice, even so far as presenting to the consultants with some interesting new research. I asked for all students (nurses, PT, Dr) etc to come and spend a session with me so I could explain OT to them, and had my students go to others. I used research based practice to improve the perception of our service. I think you need to work on your workplace and change the culture of OT one person, team and place at a time. You can only take responsibility for where you work but part of your aim should be to improve the standing of OT if it bothers you too much. Yes I know how hard this is, I wanted to bash my head against the wall a few times with certain staff members, but I like to think I left that place a better environment for OT's than when I arrived. While I get that you need to offload at times, complaining about it is not going to make a difference, only action can do that. Angela King, Assessor Outpatients, Directions Appraisal Team - REHAB PLUS 54 Carrington Road Pt Chevalier, Auckland Auckland District Health Board ##################################################################################### Scanned by MailMarshal - Marshal8e6's comprehensive email content security solution. Download a free evaluation of MailMarshal at www.marshal.com ##################################################################################### -- Options? www.otnow.com/mailman/options/otlist_otnow.com Archive? www.mail-archive.com/otlist@otnow.com
