We are more than a health profession. We can look at people's daily lives and understand how all parts integrate and interact. The worlds current problems are cause by human occupation, so expects in human occupation and activity need to solve it!

1. Masters of
Integration:
why the world
really needs OT
Jen Gash
OT, Coach, Artist
www.otcoach.com
www.jengash.co.uk

2. • Messy, crafty kid
• Painty teenager
• HR Job in London
• Trained in OT: BG, Sen 2,1,
Head OT
• Still Painting
• Trained as a coach &
became a mum
• Voc Rehab, Case Manager
• OTCoach and Discovery Party
• Sky Arts Landscape
Artist of the Year 2018
... always an OT

3. What might the future hold?
What do human beings really need? What might they need?
What does the planet need – our family, friends, wider society, the
environment, other species?
We are not Jack of All Trades – we are Masters of Integration
Why I believe occupational therapy is the key to the adaptation that
needs to take place.
OT in good faith and for the good of society

4. Photo by Nurhadi Cahyono on Unsplash
VUCA
Volatile,
Uncertain,
Complex &
Ambiguous
Change is afoot….

5. The future?....
What might the world or society look like in
10/20/30/40 years time?
What occupational challenges might we all be
facing? How might humans need to adapt?
What expectations might we have from our work,
social life, education & health systems?
How will travel/mobility be different?
How would our daily occupations have to change
if we banned single use plastic, had water
shortages or stopped flying? From my TARDIS I see….

6. Changing work patterns, predicted years ago, are already taking hold = Less “work”
Greater leisure time, but some are working harder than ever before.
Housing – more communal living as land & property become scarcer & more costly?
Environmental/political issues might displace people “en mass” globally. Radical, urgent action is
needed to change people's patterns of activity – their daily occupations
Information: people are more informed & have different views about managing their health
Current predictions indicate an aging population with multiple LT conditions, but life expectancy has
levelled off recently
An epidemic of mental health problems…it’s already here and may worsen.
Neuro-diversity – perhaps it will become understood as the norm in the future?
Cycling, walking, baking, growing, making… an explosion in meaning making, purpose & connection

7. Our success now threatens our existence
Our current problems are occupational
problems - they are all created by patterns of
human occupation: how we live our daily
lives and occupy ourselves minute to minute.
Occupational change is needed: how we occupy
ourselves and make meaning from our time on earth:
travel less, consume less, look after each other better,
understand each other and be more comfortable with
diversity, seek fulfilment without creating problems
for the future
We have
a much
bigger
role to
play…

8. Occupational Therapy IS the solution…
we think and do things very differently to other
professions

9. Masters of Integration
Occupational therapists “see” differently,
“think” differently and “act” differently.
We weave together vastly different
elements and contexts of peoples lives, to
create a new whole or a new perspective….
We find the different colours that make up
peoples lives and help them paint a new
picture…
Any more metaphors!

10. Photo by Michelle Spencer on Unsplash
Courage,
creativity and a
desire to explore
I wonder what OT
could do here….?
Courage, creativity

11. “We can not solve our
problems with the
same level of thinking
that created them”
Einstein

13. • Combinational creativity:
combining familiar things or
ideas to come up with
something new
• Exploratory creativity:
using what’s already there,
but with new twists or
changes
• Transformational
creativity: rule book is
thrown away, the idea may be
quite shocking…oooeerrr
OT + ambulance
OT uses circus skills
Rapid resp OT in A&E or
OT employed by a school
OT sets up new education service in
the community or in a forest... or
OT joins a social circus, training
circus workers etc
OTs lead policy change...

14. www.holisticcircustherapy.com/

15. www.sportforconfidence.com

16. • Student role-emergent placements of all kinds, such
as fire service, homelessness services, dementia
cafes/day care
• Community wellbeing cafes
• Using a passion for baking to form a social
enterprise
• Using football and OT
• Using OT models in corporate settings…not to do
with wellbeing/health (performance and
recruitment)

17. Photo by Samuel Edwards on Unsplash

18. • It’s easier to just go with the
established systems and ways
• It’s easy to get disillusioned and
tired
BUT
• You don’t have to be on it all the
time
BUT
• If you speak about how
occupational therapy helps people,
this is much more powerful
• Speak about how your integrative,
soulful, artistic approach to living,
helps human beings and society as a
whole

19. • Everything we participate in, is an
invention by humans: the finance
system, insurance system, health
system, political system, educational
system – all invented by humans…
• Be conscious about the system you
are participating in and who benefits
from your intervention
• Use your occupational artistry so it
has impact, where it is needed. We
need to operate at grass roots level
whilst influencing at the top as we
create something better.
Conscious
practice

20. Techne V Phronesis
Become an
“occupational artist”,
not merely a
technician of the state
or the systems we
have created

21. The logic
of largeness
devalues
the personal
Charles Eisenstein

22. Thanks for listening…
Keep in touch:
• Jen@jengash.co.uk
• www.otcoach.com
• Facebook/otcoachuk
• Twitter @OTCoachUK
• OTs in every high street ? Based with
Osteopaths/Chiropractors or
community cafes? We see it a bit, but
there’s scope for more
• An OT/AHP bus for isolated
communities for
assessment/advice/treatment!
• Working in sustainability
education/public health/community
development etc.
• More OTs in large organisations, not just
for wellbeing….what about
organisational change, personal
development & performance