From Hull to Glasgow: A career in occupational therapy

For this reflection, I have taken a nostalgic journey through my memories and focussing on the academic part of my career. My first academic post was as a research assistant at the then NHS Centre for Reviews and Dissemination, University of York, where I worked on the Practice and Service Development Initiative and was exposed to systematic reviews for the first time. It shows how formative early experiences can be because evidence synthesis has been the main research method that I have used during my career. This post led to me living in York which is the place I have lived longest in my life. I celebrated the new millennium under the ‘Heart of Yorkshire’ and I saw my first cycle race—Le Grand Depart of the Tour De France—which led to road racing becoming a passion.

The ‘Heart of Yorkshire’ part of York Minster’s Great West Window
(used with permission from Azendi)

My next step was to study my PhD which I did at the University of Hull. This resonated with my life because I was born in Coventry and Phillip Larkin—poet and librarian at the University of Hull—called Hull Coventry by the sea. I was appointed to Hull & East Yorkshire NHS Trust (now Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust) as a Research & Development occupational therapist—a first of its kind in the UK and a forerunner to the clinical academic role—based at the Institute of Rehabilitation. I spent half of my time doing a PhD and the other promoting evidence-based practice within the allied health professions. As a head occupational therapist, I also contributed to managing the Department.

The role has benefitted my career immeasurably; it has been the bedrock of my academic career. I will always be grateful for the opportunity to study for a PhD early. Evidence based practice has been a driving force and doing so much critical appraisal teaching at Hull led to a lifelong fascination with research methods. Later I was awarded my senior fellowship in higher education for excellence in teaching research methods. During my time in Hull I also started to develop mentorship skills and mentoring has been a defining characteristic of my career.

Brynmor Jones Library University of Hull: The central window above the door is where Larkin’s office was located Hullian111, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Since leaving Hull, I have worked at the Universities of Teesside, York St John, and Plymouth which has involved teaching and researching in research methods and occupational therapy teams. Over the years I continued to develop expertise in evidence synthesis—I published one of the first systematic reviews in occupational therapy—and developing occupation-based complex interventions.

Whilst working at the Universities of York St John and Plymouth I also had the privilege of being a visiting professor at Riga Stradins University in Latvia, which has been one of the many joys of my career. The work was very interesting but the exposure to another culture with a very different history was profound. A part of my heart will always be in Riga. Another life-changing experience was attending the first World Federation of Occupational Therapists congress in Africa. I went to South Africa for three weeks; as well as a week for the conference I had a week’s holiday in Cape Town and I taught at Rhodes University in Grahamstown. I find it hard to articulate the impact of the trip on me. I was challenged in so many ways as a person, how people respond to events, friendship, my history, my Country’s history, my sense of space, landscape and colour. I remember how green burnt my eyes on the train journey home from London to Devon. I am still processing my experiences even now; six years later. My experiences in Latvia and South Africa are testament to the saying ‘travel broadens the mind’ and I count myself very lucky to have these incredible opportunities during my career.

The Freedom Monument Latvia © Scotch Mist / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Bo-Kaap area of CapeTown and Table Mountain in the background By SkyPixels – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=50450153

Today, I work in Glasgow where I have recently been promoted to Professor of Occupational Therapy at Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU). As a member of the Ageing Well Research Group in the Research Centre for Health I am developing an occupation-based health promotion intervention—EmpowerAge^TM—to promote healthy ageing. With its mission for the common good, I am delighted to be a Professor at GCU. My work, focused as it is on everyday activities to improve health and well being, epitomizes working for the common good. It’s a joy to work alongside people who share a commitment to this mission and the University’s values. It is true ‘People make Glasgow’. Aside from the University’s mission for the common good, which makes me inordinately proud to work at GCU, my family hails from Glasgow and, whilst I have lived and worked all round the UK, I can now say I am truly home.