For those who don't know the COT conference is held every year. It is a conference where you can present or just attend workshops, seminars and key note speeches. When we found out we were going to the conference we were delighted, it was a pretty big deal, we did not know what to expect to begin with and with it being the middle of summer we had to engage our OT brain and get out of the lazy summer mode.
We arrived in sunny Brighton on the Tuesday only to find out that the conference was literally opposite the beach and coincidentally we were going through a British heatwave. Needless to say we were delighted and double checked our suitcases to make sure we had packed bikinis and beachwear.
Walking into this conference was amazing, packed full of people mingling discussing sessions they were interested in. To begin with we were a bit overwhelmed, we were not sure specifically what we wanted to see or even where to go, obviously as we are not qualified OT's we do not have a specific field of interest or an extensive background knowledge of any types of clinical areas. So our over all plan of the 3 days was to see as much as we possibly could, whilst also enjoying being in Brighton and picking up as many free pens, note pads and highlighters as we could.. after all we are students!
To give a more in depth description of our experiences we have a brief reflection of some of the things we experienced...
Mindfulness session- With world renowned comedian, Ruby Wax OBE
Ruby Wax has just finished a talk about the value of mindfulness training for mental health settings. Ruby has recently received an OBE for her contribution towards addressing mental health issues in today’s society. Ruby’s talk was extremely funny and informative. She gave a personal account of the advantages that mindfulness can give someone who has a mental health diagnosis. A section of the talk that resonated with us was when she explained that when someone loses a part of their body, such as their leg, it is seen as a traumatic experience, however when someone begins to lose their mind, the public adheres to a less sympathetic attitude. The public, even close friends or family, might say things like “lighten up”, or “get over it and move on”, and not recognise that losing a part of your mind is equally traumatic. She spoke a lot about her experiences with depression and the way that it molds your mind into sadness, with the repetition of negative thoughts, creating and securing negative neurological pathways. These neurological pathways or ways of thinking are then made stronger and denser with re-occurring thoughts. She then spoke about how mindfulness can contribute towards breaking down these neurological pathways, as it offers a distraction from the monotonous negative thoughts. Ruby described that engaging in mindfulness is a spiritual experience and allows the person to focus their mind on their senses, such as their breathing, the feel of the ground or the noises around them. Doing this can provide people with a method of self regulation that they can use when they need to. She helped us see the value of mindfulness, so much so, that as we are writing this passage, we are listening to the sound of the waves and occasionally watching the clouds pass over us on the beautiful Brighton beach!
Student Papers
The conference offers students the opportunity to contribute to the ever growing evidence base for Occupational Therapy. Whilst at the conference we attended a session where students produced their own pieces of research that they have completed whilst at University. Attending this session showed us that if you have something important to say about OT, say it, there is nothing stopping you. It gave us the motivation to bring something influential to OT practice, as we thought that someday it could be us standing up there on stage. More importantly, the student papers were extremely unique, bringing to our attention new practice areas for the profession that we have not previously considered. For example, one paper was about the importance of the OT role in a mother and baby unit, whereby an OT can support mothers who have a mental health diagnosis, to form secure attachments with their children. The student said that this could be achieved through interventions centered on crafts, whereby a mother could make things for their child. This might seem so obvious if you are students like us studying the diverse profession but it became apparent that it is not that obvious to everyone, very few mother and baby units have an occupational therapist working on the ward.
Interdependence is just as important as independence for clients in OT practice
This session was an influential moment of the conference that made us re-evaluate the messages that we give to clients in practice. We describe OT to be a means of providing clients with independence in their daily activities and their daily lives. However, who is truly independent? We all rely on somebody to help us with something in our lives, might that be: asking a fellow student for help on an assignment or getting somebody to make us coffee when we are tired. The overall message is, humans are social beings and doing an activity with someone can increase our motivation and drive to achieve something. A client doing an activity with a close friend, family member or another client can make an activity more fun, improve well being and help to shape effective roles and routines. So as OT’s we should never dismiss the social aspect of a clients life, as sometimes we all need somebody, instead we should value interdependence as well as independence, enable clients to engage and restore interdependence and challenge the constraints that independence sometimes gives a client.
‘My Journey with Breast Cancer- With an OT twist.
This was a truly inspiring moment of the COT 2015 conference. A fellow OT spoke about the last two years of her life, whilst living with a fierce form of breast cancer. She spoke about the challenges that having breast cancer imposed on her life and also the OT techniques she used to cope. The lady said that she did not see one OT throughout her battle with breast cancer, however she believed that the OT skills that she used helped her cope. She used her skills as an OT such as problem solving, to overcome the fatigue that her chemotherapy gave her and task analysis to still make sure that her days were filled with valued activity. She would rank her daily tasks in terms of importance, and the expected amount of fatigue that they would leave her with. From there she would make sure that she did tasks which had a high expected fatigue level in the days leading up to her chemotherapy and the less strenuous tasks the days after the chemo. She made sure that she still included meaningful occupations in her days; she did this by setting her own goals, as she once did for her clients. She set herself goals that would ensure that she maintained her mental and physical well being, despite having breast cancer. For example, walking her dog and visiting her favorite places. She used her artistic talents to draw her cancer and would imagine a guarded soldier over her heart which protected her from the cancer spreading further, which helped her maintain positive thoughts. She has now fully recovered from the condition and completed a bucket list full of her ambitions. The overall message that she gave us was that the valuable skills we develop as OT’s are not just for our service users, but also for ourselves.
Why to go to conference?
* Excellent CPD opportunity
* See the latest and unique research in our profession
* Posters, seminars, speeches and workshops
* Network with influential OT’s. Over 700 OT's attend, and all of them will want to talk to you about OT!
* As many freebies as you can possibly stuff in your pockets
*Excellent CPD opportunity
*An opportunity to be inspired
* Finally... Explore the amazing location!! (The 2016, 40th Annual Conference is being held in Harrogate 28th-30th June)
Check out the BAOT/COT video below to find out more about next years conference, perhaps we'll see you there.
We arrived in sunny Brighton on the Tuesday only to find out that the conference was literally opposite the beach and coincidentally we were going through a British heatwave. Needless to say we were delighted and double checked our suitcases to make sure we had packed bikinis and beachwear.
Walking into this conference was amazing, packed full of people mingling discussing sessions they were interested in. To begin with we were a bit overwhelmed, we were not sure specifically what we wanted to see or even where to go, obviously as we are not qualified OT's we do not have a specific field of interest or an extensive background knowledge of any types of clinical areas. So our over all plan of the 3 days was to see as much as we possibly could, whilst also enjoying being in Brighton and picking up as many free pens, note pads and highlighters as we could.. after all we are students!
To give a more in depth description of our experiences we have a brief reflection of some of the things we experienced...
Mindfulness session- With world renowned comedian, Ruby Wax OBE
Ruby Wax has just finished a talk about the value of mindfulness training for mental health settings. Ruby has recently received an OBE for her contribution towards addressing mental health issues in today’s society. Ruby’s talk was extremely funny and informative. She gave a personal account of the advantages that mindfulness can give someone who has a mental health diagnosis. A section of the talk that resonated with us was when she explained that when someone loses a part of their body, such as their leg, it is seen as a traumatic experience, however when someone begins to lose their mind, the public adheres to a less sympathetic attitude. The public, even close friends or family, might say things like “lighten up”, or “get over it and move on”, and not recognise that losing a part of your mind is equally traumatic. She spoke a lot about her experiences with depression and the way that it molds your mind into sadness, with the repetition of negative thoughts, creating and securing negative neurological pathways. These neurological pathways or ways of thinking are then made stronger and denser with re-occurring thoughts. She then spoke about how mindfulness can contribute towards breaking down these neurological pathways, as it offers a distraction from the monotonous negative thoughts. Ruby described that engaging in mindfulness is a spiritual experience and allows the person to focus their mind on their senses, such as their breathing, the feel of the ground or the noises around them. Doing this can provide people with a method of self regulation that they can use when they need to. She helped us see the value of mindfulness, so much so, that as we are writing this passage, we are listening to the sound of the waves and occasionally watching the clouds pass over us on the beautiful Brighton beach!
Student Papers
The conference offers students the opportunity to contribute to the ever growing evidence base for Occupational Therapy. Whilst at the conference we attended a session where students produced their own pieces of research that they have completed whilst at University. Attending this session showed us that if you have something important to say about OT, say it, there is nothing stopping you. It gave us the motivation to bring something influential to OT practice, as we thought that someday it could be us standing up there on stage. More importantly, the student papers were extremely unique, bringing to our attention new practice areas for the profession that we have not previously considered. For example, one paper was about the importance of the OT role in a mother and baby unit, whereby an OT can support mothers who have a mental health diagnosis, to form secure attachments with their children. The student said that this could be achieved through interventions centered on crafts, whereby a mother could make things for their child. This might seem so obvious if you are students like us studying the diverse profession but it became apparent that it is not that obvious to everyone, very few mother and baby units have an occupational therapist working on the ward.
Interdependence is just as important as independence for clients in OT practice
This session was an influential moment of the conference that made us re-evaluate the messages that we give to clients in practice. We describe OT to be a means of providing clients with independence in their daily activities and their daily lives. However, who is truly independent? We all rely on somebody to help us with something in our lives, might that be: asking a fellow student for help on an assignment or getting somebody to make us coffee when we are tired. The overall message is, humans are social beings and doing an activity with someone can increase our motivation and drive to achieve something. A client doing an activity with a close friend, family member or another client can make an activity more fun, improve well being and help to shape effective roles and routines. So as OT’s we should never dismiss the social aspect of a clients life, as sometimes we all need somebody, instead we should value interdependence as well as independence, enable clients to engage and restore interdependence and challenge the constraints that independence sometimes gives a client.
‘My Journey with Breast Cancer- With an OT twist.
This was a truly inspiring moment of the COT 2015 conference. A fellow OT spoke about the last two years of her life, whilst living with a fierce form of breast cancer. She spoke about the challenges that having breast cancer imposed on her life and also the OT techniques she used to cope. The lady said that she did not see one OT throughout her battle with breast cancer, however she believed that the OT skills that she used helped her cope. She used her skills as an OT such as problem solving, to overcome the fatigue that her chemotherapy gave her and task analysis to still make sure that her days were filled with valued activity. She would rank her daily tasks in terms of importance, and the expected amount of fatigue that they would leave her with. From there she would make sure that she did tasks which had a high expected fatigue level in the days leading up to her chemotherapy and the less strenuous tasks the days after the chemo. She made sure that she still included meaningful occupations in her days; she did this by setting her own goals, as she once did for her clients. She set herself goals that would ensure that she maintained her mental and physical well being, despite having breast cancer. For example, walking her dog and visiting her favorite places. She used her artistic talents to draw her cancer and would imagine a guarded soldier over her heart which protected her from the cancer spreading further, which helped her maintain positive thoughts. She has now fully recovered from the condition and completed a bucket list full of her ambitions. The overall message that she gave us was that the valuable skills we develop as OT’s are not just for our service users, but also for ourselves.
Why to go to conference?
* Excellent CPD opportunity
* See the latest and unique research in our profession
* Posters, seminars, speeches and workshops
* Network with influential OT’s. Over 700 OT's attend, and all of them will want to talk to you about OT!
* As many freebies as you can possibly stuff in your pockets
*Excellent CPD opportunity
*An opportunity to be inspired
* Finally... Explore the amazing location!! (The 2016, 40th Annual Conference is being held in Harrogate 28th-30th June)
Check out the BAOT/COT video below to find out more about next years conference, perhaps we'll see you there.