AbleOTUK – Learning Events and Publications.
Below are workshops, events, presentations and other activities the core group behind AbleOTUK have been up to:
AbleOTUK Newsletter January 2025
November/December 2024 – Blog for the Health and Care Professions Council – Disability in Healthcare: Celebrating History, Championing Inclusion, and Driving Change https://www.hcpc-uk.org/registrants/in-your-words/2024/disability-history-month-2024/
AbleOTUK Newsletter December 2024
4th May 2024 – Book launch event for Georgia Vine’s ‘Occupational Therapy, Disability Activism, and Me: Challenging Ableism in Healthcare’
December 2023 OT News article – written in collaboration with the University of Southampton Creating a foundation in Allyship
24th November 2023 -The OT Show Creating Spaces for Belonging: Experiences of a disabled newly qualified OT Natalie Hicks, Occupational Therapist and founding member – AbleOTUK
15th June 2023 – Royal College of Occupational Therapists Annual Conference 2023
Session 33.2 Retaining the option to dial in: criticality of hybrid in occupational therapy for inclusion and belonging Sam Pywell coordinator: social prescribing unit @UCLAN University of Central Lancashire
Session 39.2 Positive disclosure and placement-specific learning support plans – Georgia Vine Graduate Teaching Assistant University of Huddersfield and Samantha TavenderSenior Lecturer University of Huddersfield
Session 41.2 A personal recovery journey: the challenge I now have for the profession Rachel Booth-Gardiner Lead Occupational Therapist TEWV NHS Trust
17th May 2023 – Equity, Diversity and Belonging – Awareness, Responsibility, Growth – Presentation at the RCOT Northern and Yorkshire regional come back learning event, join with LGBTQIA+OT and RCOT EDB manager
May 2023 OT News Article – Health and Character declarations – our experience Page 54-55
March/April 2023 – The OT Magazine issue 51 page 15-16 (currently unavailable)
2nd February 2023 University of Southampton Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging – AbleOTUK Exploring Ableism, Activism and Allyship Workshop
24th November 2022 The OT show- AbleOTUK- Allyship It’s Time to Make It a Meaningful Occupation 24 Nov 2022 13:15 – 14:00 Keynote Theatre
18th November 2022. The Occupational Therapy in Diverse Settings at the University of Brighton Conference – Keynote Presentation – Any Setting Can Be DiverseOT!
November 2022 OT News Article – Disability History Month: Where does occupational therapy fit in? Page 12-15
7th October 2022 – Ableism what is it and are occupational therapists guilty of practising it? presentation for Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health partnership NHS as part of their #OTweek CPD event.
10th October 2022 – We hosted a workshop for students at UCLAn
6th October 2022 – World Cerebral Palsy Day social media takeover by a group of OT’s with lived experiences of cerebral palsy.
Throughout September 2022 – We celebrated Deaf awareness month. read the blog post here
24th September 2022 -RCOT West Midlands region – Long covid study morning and networking lunch.
26th July 2022 Hosted an OTalk Celebrating Disability Pride month become an ally
Thoughout July 2022 we ran a Be an AbleOTUK ally twitter campaign. #BeAnAbleOTUKAlly
July 2022 OT News Article – Celebrating Disability Pride Month Page 40-42
29th June 2022 – Speaking at admissions forum and practice placement forum
16th June 2022 – AbleOTUK Who, What Why? Occupational Therapy Integrated Degree Apprenticeship Forum
15th June 2022 – AbleOTUK round table RCOT conference 2022 session 29 (if you had a ticket to #RCOT2022 you can watch this round table event on that platform available for 6 months)
June 7th 2022 – Occupational Therapists Have Disabilities Too! Solihull MBC staff conference.
May 18th 2022 – AffinOT: AffinOT: How You and Your Region Can Get Involved. RCOT Trent Regional event.
14 May 2022 – AbleOTUK team members help facilitate discussion in brake out rooms at RCOT Eastern Region – Do I belong? How do we challenge the differences in BAME occupational therapy career progression
Saturday 23rd April 2022. Occupational Therapy, Ableism, and Coproduction of services. – https://www.otfrontiers.co.uk
Wednesday 20 April 2022 RCOT EDB Insights: Practising what we preach, disability and inclusion, Delivered by Dr Wendy Bryant Followed by AbleOTUK team members on the Panel
12th April 2022 – hosted an OTalk Intersectionality: What is it and why should occupational therapists know about it?
January 22nd 2022 Rachel Booth-Gardiner Represented AbleOTUK in this panel discussion.
OT Show November 2021 Georgia Vine represented AbleOTUK giving this presentation.
Affinity groups more than just representation or diversity
November 2021 OT Week 2021 – AbleOTUK Involvement Twitter content. Representation within the RCOT launch event
World Cerebral Palsy Day October 6th 2021 Georgia Vine and Rachel Booth-Gardiner Twitter takeover #TeamOTCP
RCOT SS- CYPF Virtual Conference 2021 #CYPF21
Date: Friday 1st October 2021. Equality and Diversity Session Georgia Vine and Susan Griffiths. Twitter timeline
27th Aug 2021 – Real talk with UK occupational therapy affinity groups and Steve Ford CEO RCOT BAMEOTUK podcast Ep14
August 2021: Joint event hosted by @LGBTQIAOTUK, @BAMEOTUK & @AbleOTs Microaggressions webinar Workshop with Rayya Ghul.
Launch of AbleOTUK July 2021 – live web event
Dear OT Campaign for Disability Pride Month July 2021
Upcoming events
Support sessions
We hold monthly networking/support sessions on the first Wednesday of each month. These sessions are open to all UK-based occupational therapists/students who identify as disabled or have a long-term health condition.
We respectfully ask that allies do not attend these sessions to allow a safe space for all participants.
Date for 2025
Wednesday 12th Feb
Wednesday 12th March
Wednesday 9th April
Wednesday 14th May
Wednesday 11th June
Wednesday 9th July
Wednesday 13th Aug
Wednesday 10th Sept
Wednesday 8th Oct
Wednesday 12th Nov
Wednesday 10th Dec
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