Our co-CEO and Senior OT Joanna Murray will be presenting at the World Federation of Occupational Therapists Congress in Paris next week after the success of our virtual student placement program since its inception in 2020. 

Joanna and University of Worcester senior OT lecturer Alison Double developed the idea to facilitate the collaborative virtual placements over Zoom and Factime following extensive lockdowns and restrictions from COVID-19 in the UK, over the past two years.

In partnership with James Cook University, Townsville-based Occupational Therapists and undergraduate students were able to facilitate placements for undergraduate students in the UK, who might not have graduated without them. The World Federation of Occupational Therapists states that all undergraduate students must complete 1000 hours of placement to receive their accreditation.

“Our overall goal is to provide students with a unique experience to work together and learn valuable professional skills whilst overcoming a variety of barriers, such as technology issues and working in different time zones,” 

-Joanna Murray

The two major projects of the program included the development of a sensory environment in St Benedict’s Catholic School and designing mobility aid manuals for people with disabilities in remote villages in PNG, in partnership with KumulCare.

“We have had the privilege to contribute to the important work by KumulCare by donating assistive equipment and the idea for this project started there. We saw an opportunity to get our placement students involved,” - Joanna Murray

Kate Ross, an Occupational Therapist at Apricus Health started as an undergraduate student in the program. 

“As a student, I was involved in a variety of aspects of the project including setting up meetings with the village leader in Keapara, creating culturally sensitive and appropriate survey's that the people of Keapara could understand, assessing their needs and from there designing and developing mobility aid manuals and instructional videos that were suitable for the people of Keapara to understand.”

-Kate Ross

Stand by for updates on the congress and Jo's time in Paris.