The 12 Days of an OT Christmas
Help yourself to some seasonal OT cheer! Our 12-day Krysalis Christmas countdown is stuffed with good spirits sharing their tales of joy to make others smile.
After 12 months of Covid-19 chaos, the 12-day run-up to Christmas seems a perfect time to call for calm and optimism...and focus on having fun!
So, like Santa himself, we completed a lightning international trip to deliver these 12 ‘goodies’ to everyone in the neurorehabilitation community.
Happy Christmas!
Dr Elizabeth Casson
“One Monday morning I found the atmosphere had completely changed and realised that preparations for Christmas decorations had begun. I knew from that moment that such occupation was an integral part of treatment and must be provided.” Dr Elizabeth Casson (1881-1954)
What Dr Casson witnessed in the run-up to Christmas on a women’s ward over 90 years ago changed the way OTs work today.
For it inspired her idea for the UK’s first school of occupational therapy, Dorset House in Bristol, which was opened on New Year's Day in 1930.
In ‘The Story of Dorset House School of Occupational Therapy 1930 – 1986’, Dr Casson describes the moment she first realised the value of occupational therapy over the more commonly prescribed ‘convalescence’.
“When I first qualified as a doctor…I found it very difficult to get used to the atmosphere of bored idleness in the day rooms of the hospital,” she wrote.
"Then, one Monday morning, when I arrived at the women’s wards, I found the atmosphere had completely changed and realised that preparations for Christmas decorations had begun.
“The ward sisters had produced coloured tissue paper and bare branches, and all the patients were working happily in groups making flowers and leaves and using all their artistic talents with real interest and pleasure.
“I knew from that moment that such occupation was an integral part of treatment and must be provided.”
Esther Dark
I have started to witness every day how small changes – a smile, a listening ear, a change to the environment – can have a huge impact on a patient. 
OT, Esther Dark.
OT, Esther Dark’s first occupational therapy experience was as a mental health patient with an eating disorder.
“At times, I admittedly used occupational therapy groups as a way to escape the monotony of the ward,” she says in an interview with The Guardian.
“But they eventually provided me with a chance to explore life beyond the hospital, who I was, and what I wanted to live for.”
Esther was among 80 occupational therapy heroes recognised for advancing or influencing brain injury rehabilitation in this year’s Krysalis OT80 list.
Esther met an OT who not only changed her life but inspired her to become one! Find more here: The Guardian - How an Occupational Therapist gave hope.
Simon Berrell
The positive changes which have presented themselves have been life-affirming, such as eating together every evening as a family (which never happened pre-Covid) and talking with neighbours who, pre-Covid, we only ‘nodded’ to.
Simon Berrell, Neuro Physio Service
Simon Berrell, Director of the UK-wide Neuro Physio Service, reflects on some of the more positive changes brought about by Covid-19.
His comments came in a Krysalis poll of over 20 rehabilitation experts in which we asked what advice they would give to help people cope during the pandemic.
Simon, who heads a highly-skilled physiotherapist team, added: “It’s these basic interactions that have made me rethink how I would like to go forward after the lockdown ends.” Expert opinion here.
The OT Toolbox
When the outside world’s dangers and unpredictability near the shelter of our homes, we can grow weary, just when we need our strength, to smile through the difficulties. It is SO good to hear of positive work being done in the world!
Colleen Beck, The OT Toolbox
And it is SO good to discover The OT Toolbox, an amazing American resource which began as a blog but has now reached tens of millions of OTs, teachers and parents worldwide.
Back in 2011, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania OT, Colleen Beck started blogging to share and inspire other OTs working with children.
“I love to pull my OT background into blog posts with developmental spins on crafts and activities; from the “why” behind making a specific craft or activity, to help you think outside the (tool) box,” she writes.
“I’m using my OT hat to look at the whole person.”
The OT Toolbox provides a wealth of ideas on how to promote healthy development through creative activities.
We particularly love the 7 Day Family Kindness Challenge. What better time than now to remember kindness is for life, not just for Christmas?
Anne Ricketts
I want to help. I want to be a part of it all. I want to be the mum putting a wonderful meal on the table and the granny full of surprises. What you see of me is a reflection of my personality drowned beneath a range of thinking and doing disabilities. I am still me. Have a little faith.
Anne Ricketts, GBIA founder
Krysalis blogger, Anne Ricketts, may live on an island, but she’s a master at building bridges to reach other brain injury, community members.
Despite her own persisting cognitive challenges following a fall from a horse 20 years ago, she has founded the Global Brain Injury Awareness non-profit group community interest company.
She also shares her common sense, lived experiences of brain injury and broad sense of humour as a much-cherished Krysalis blogger via our Talking Heads initiative.
Anne's most recent Krysalis Christmas blog is here:
Planning for Christmas when you or a loved one has a brain injury
Eleanor Roosevelt
Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home – so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world.
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884 – 1962)
In 1948, America’s longest-serving First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt was among the many United Nations (UN) leaders to help write the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which details all human beings' rights and freedoms.
Marking the declaration’s tenth anniversary, she delivered a laudedUN speech in which she implored individuals at a community level to work together to ensure all human rights were upheld.
The starting point, she suggested, should be “in small places, close to home”.
And she explained why: “Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination.
“Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world.”
In 2006, the additional rights of people with disabilities were upheld in a separate international treaty that, no doubt, would have won the First Lady’s approval.
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) is celebrated annually on 3 December, the International Day of Persons with Disabilities (IDPD).
Thomas Jefferson
Their own greatest happiness… does not depend on the condition of life in which chance has placed them, but is always the result of a good conscience, good health, occupation, and freedom in all just pursuits.
Thomas Jefferson, 1743-1826
From his quote, you could be forgiven for thinking that Founding Father and 3rd President of the United States, Thomas Jefferson was also an occupational therapist!
He wasn’t, of course, but his words – actually referring to children's education - might well have been describing an OT’s whole-person approach to rehabilitation.
Jefferson, who wrote the original draft of the US Declaration of Independence, also penned another American classic, Notes on the State of Virginia. He comments on life and conditions in his home state, including education.
More here: The American Dream
5: Professor Adrian Bird
Medicine is now accessible much more quickly and directly than it ever was before. Biology has become one huge canvas rather than a small number of vignettes.
Brain Prize winner, Sir Adrian Bird
If ever reasons are required for cheerfulness, look to the scientists and their ongoing breakthroughs in the fields of neurology and neurorehabilitation.
Winners of The Brain Award this year, University of Edinburgh Professor Sir Adrian Bird and Baylor College of Medicine professor, Huda Zoghbi were recognized for understanding the inherited brain disorder, Rett syndrome.
Occupational therapy can play a key part in helping patients manage the disorder, which causes neuromuscular abnormalities and cognitive and physical developmental delays.
Sir Adrian’s team identified gene mutations linked to Rett syndrome, but it may also impact other health conditions.
More about Sir Adrian here: Biology has become one huge canvas - an interview with brain prize winner Sir Adrian Bird
Further information on how OT can help with Rett’s syndromehere:Rett syndrome news - occupational therapy
4. Professor Sheila the Baroness Hollins
I hope [my son] will be so embedded in his community that there will always be people who’ll look out for him, love him and care for him after I’m no longer here. That’s what every parent wants.
RCOT president, Sheila Hollins
RCOT president, Professor Sheila Baroness Hollins founded a not-for-profit organisation to support people with learning disabilities after her son, Nigel was born with communication problems.
Beyond Words produces picture books to bridge communication gaps and – in tune with occupational therapy aims – realise potential.
Speaking to The Guardian about her family and work, Lady Hollins had her OT hat firmly in place: “Beyond Words is what I feel most passionate about because it’s about transforming people’s lives.”
The full interview here: https://booksbeyondwords.co.uk/news/sheila-hollins-interview
More about Lady Hollins here: https://www.rcot.co.uk/about-us/governance/our-president
3. Annabel Hill
As from my experience, I believe toy-making to be highly curative. I believe the time and energy consumed is fully repaid.
OT Annabel Hill (1922)
Could it be that every Christmas, as far back as a century ago, some OTs spend their spare time employed as Santa’s elves?
This 1922 quote from one of America’s first OTs, Annabel Hill certainly suggests hence, as she responds to a contemporaneous debate on the use of toy making as a means of occupational therapy.
The pioneering OTs in the 1900s excelled at researching new occupations to treat patients, including basket weaving, chair caning, brush making and carpentry in addition to physical activity.
But what was the consensus on toy making? Try searching for ‘occupational therapy toys’ via google shopping.
It won’t take you long to find the answer, but it might take a while looking at all those toys with proven rehabilitative benefits…
Dig deeper into OT history here: https://covalentcareers.com/resources/early-occupational-therapy-history/
Dr Jenny Preston MBE
Students will contribute as architects of our future through scholarly challenge, knowledge creation, and developing and implementing the future vision.
Dr Jenny Preston MBE
Since our 12-day countdown began, we’ve sensed the spirit of OTs past and welcomed the words of OTs in the present. But of what of the future?
Dr Jenny Preston MBE, awarded this year’s Dr Elizabeth Casson Memorial Lectureship for outstanding contribution to the profession, sought inspiration from the First World War to outline her own OT vision in which there is no requirement “to explain, justify and articulate the real meaning and value of occupational therapy”.
Echoing the sentiments of the speech made by King George 6th to mark the end of the war, Dr Preston recommended a four-fold approach to achieve this:
- Constancy – in seeking “to establish and define the faithful dependable enduring and unchanging dimensions of the profession”.
- Courage is the ability to move outside of one’s comfort zone, which may elicit fear and require bravery and strength.
- Faith – refers to OT's prospect as a profession “having a complete trust and confidence in what we do” informed by the evidence and knowledge we generate.
- Unity - depicts a stance of being together or at one as a profession.
Dr Preston concluded: “Quite simply let us be bold as we move forward together as a profession that delivers a consistent and honest message based on the strength of our evidence and our beliefs.”
A recording of the full lecture here:https://www.rcot.co.uk/news-and-events/awards-and-funding/dr-elizabeth-casson-memorial-lecture
Christmas Day: The Gift of Giving
The meaning, magnitude, and importance of this item were worth far more than the gift itself. With a carefully tied gold bow, that small red package had a value much greater than the actual content. It represented his dreams and aspirations, his connections to his past and his anticipated future self.
Krysalis Director, Jo Throp
The tradition of giving gifts at Christmas time is symbolic of the precious items delivered by the three wise men to Jesus to celebrate his birth.
As children return from school, arms laden with handmade, wrapped Christmas gifts for family members, I reflect on how the gift of giving, to show someone we love and care for them, is integral to feelings of connection and belonging.
It is one of many activities that serve to reinforce familiarity of Christmas traditions, whilst at the same time being good for us. (1)
Occupational therapists recognise the importance of valued activities, and use meaningful occupations to engage individuals with their environment, re-affirming a newfound sense of self following illness or injury. It is, therefore, appropriate that the act of gift-giving is considered therapeutic by occupational therapists.
Many years ago, as a community neuro OT, I was asked by a stroke survivor to assist him in buying a Christmas gift for his wife. This was a deeply personal activity, and one I considered a great privilege. A department store escalator was all that stood in the way of the chosen item.
One could not ignore the focus and determination of the gentleman in question as the obstacle was overcome for the first time.
The purchase of this small Christmas gift for his wife could be directly compared to a single-handed scaling of Mount Everest because, in fact, for this man, at this moment, it was.
The meaning, magnitude, and importance of purchasing and delivering this item were worth far more than the gift itself.
With a carefully tied gold bow, that small red package had a value much greater than the actual content. It represented his dreams and aspirations, his connections to his past and his anticipated future self.
It was an action and statement re-affirming his relationship with his wife as they had done so in Christmases gone by.
Many individuals living with a life-changing disability do not have the freedom, the opportunity or access to funds to acknowledge their loved ones independently.
Our gift, therefore, is to recognise these barriers and create opportunities for someone who would otherwise have no means of doing that for themselves.
This is not a gift that is exclusively given by occupational therapy.
We can all help individuals reconnect with the people who matter to them, supporting engagement in valued roles, bolstering sometimes strained relationships, and bringing a sense of normality and context to those who may otherwise feel disconnected.
By lifting you, I lift myself also. This, I believe, is the best Christmas present of all.
Jo Throp
More from talking heads...
Click the image above to explore our talking heads pages!
We are passionate about occupational therapy and neurological rehabilitation. ‘Talking heads’ is a means of bringing together individuals and professionals interested in brain injury. The blogs, stories, films, current research, and news items aim to inform and spark moments of inspiration, reflections, and discussion points.
Follow us and share your opinions and insights on social media using #talkingheads. If you are passionate about occupational therapy and neurological rehabilitation or have been affected by brain injury, come on in and join the conversation.
References
1. O’Brien E, Kassirer S; People Are Slow to Adapt to the Warm Glow of Giving. Psychological Science. Dec 2018.