Scientific Program – Day 3
A highlight of the Congress program was the presentation of Day Three’s keynote speech by revered occupational therapist and Executive Director of the WFOT, Marilyn Pattison.
Marilyn was the 2005 recipient of OT AUSTRALIA’s prestigious Sylvia Docker Lecture, and her presentation ‘OT-Outstanding Talent: An Entrepreneurial Approach to Practice’, was both inspiring and thought provoking.
According to Marilyn, the apparent lack of community awareness regarding occupational therapy is often put down to the fact that it is a ‘young profession’, that has not been around for as long as some other allied health fields.
Marilyn laid down a challenge to today’s OTs to become champions of our profession, ‘to develop the capacity and power to construct our own destiny’.
According to Marilyn, this can be achieved by taken an entrepreneurial approach to practice - thinking outside the square and demystifying the profession.
A copy of Marilyn’s presentation has been published in the September issue of the Australian OT Journal, and can be viewed online www.blackwell-synergy.com/loi/AOT.
DVDs of each of the Keynote Presentations are also available for purchase online from the WFOT Shop.
Visit the Photo Album for images of the Day 3 Keynote Address.
A full program of Papers/workshops/panels/forums and posters was presented today.