RCOMH international launch in Chile
We were honoured that Professor Sharon
Brintnell, President of World Federation of Occupational Therapists
(WFOT) and Naomi Hankinson, Chair of the British Association of
Occupational Therapists (BAOT) and College of Occupational
Therapists (COT) Council, were able to formally launch RCOMH as an
international collaborative centre.
Sharon spoke about the importance and
timeliness of RCOMH. Her commitment reflects the fact that the WFOT
‘recognizes that fostering international research collaboration is
crucial to sustaining excellence in occupational therapy research
and training, and wishes to take a leading role in identifying and
seizing opportunities to promote occupational therapy research. It
is committed to advancing collaborative international occupational
therapy research among member countries’ (Position Statement on
Research, WFOT, 2006).
Naomi reiterated the link between RCOMH and
the COT mental health strategy
Recovering ordinary lives and the challenges for researchers
within that strategy, i.e.
- Services are informed by research evidence
and up-to-date information on best practice (pix)
- Promote the contribution of occupational
therapy to evidence based mental health services (p2)
- Focus on providing evidence for a causal
relationship between occupation, health and well being (p11)
- Seek to develop and take the lead in
co-ordinated programmes of research (p15)
The support of WFOT and COT is inestimable to
RCOMH. In a recent survey WFOT
identified that there are approx 324 000 occupational therapists in
the world and that their website gets 1.5 million hits a month. By
supporting RCOMH through having our web link on their website we
are broadening our opportunities of reaching the people across the
world who are committed to our mission of develop
world class research in occupation and mental health to influence
best practice.
Dr Alison Laver-Fawcett, Deputy Director of
RCOMH, and Hilary Williams, the Chair of RCOMH Steering group,
represented RCOMH at the event.
Alison provided an overview of how RCOMH came
into being by explaining the drivers for the foundation of this
centre and briefly described RCOMH’s mission, founding partners,
steering group, research programmes, website, e-bulletin, research
clinics and bid camps.
Hilary chaired the event and she felt at the
end of the social reception that followed that there was “Lots of
interest and admiration of the 4 year vision and the commitment
from partners.”
