RCOMH Lead for Occupation and Older People's Mental Health research programme Dr Alison Laver Fawcett
RCOMH
provides an important opportunity for researchers and
clinicians to collaborate to demonstrate the relationship
between occupation and mental health and to disseminate
research to inform evidence based-practice to improve the mental
well-being and quality of life for older people with a wide range
of mental health problems'.
At York St John…
I took up a post as Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Health and
Life Sciences in September 2008. I currently lead
the RCOMH research programme for Occupation and Older People's Mental
Health I co-supervise one fulltime PhD student
more details. In terms of research, I am
currently involved in a project to develop the United Kingdom
version of the Activity Card Sort
(ACS-UK). I have a strong commitment to ensuring that
people with dementia have access to occupation focussed
assessment and rehabilitation founded upon a strong evidence
base.
My background…
I studied occupational therapy at Dorset
House, Oxford (1983-1986) and have had a diverse and interesting
career working as a clinician, researcher, educator, manager and
professional lead. As a clinician, I worked in London with adults
with learning disability and mental health problems and with older
people with a wide range of physical and mental health problems.
My interest in standardised assessment and outcome
measurement stems from my clinical practice and early research in
the late 1980s. I began my research career in 1990 as a Senior I
research occupational therapist in the Department of Geriatric
Medicine, St George's Hospital Medical School,
London and received grants from the Nuffield Foundation,
South West Thames Regional Health Authority and St. George's
Hospital Medical Trustees which funded my doctoral research to
develop the Structured Observational Test of Function (SOTOF). I
completed my PhD in 1995 and was a doctoral student within the
Department of Psychology at the University of Surrey, between
1991-1992 my doctoral studies were supported by two Kings Fund
educational bursaries and the College of Occupational
Therapists' Pressalit Award. I was very fortunate to undertake
a post-doctoral fellowship in the Occupational Therapy Programme at
Washington University School of Medicine, USA and then to work as
an Assistant Professor in the School of Rehabilitation Science at
McMaster University, Canada. I moved to North Yorkshire in 1999 and
spent eight years working back in the NHS leading service
evaluation and improvement work as a modernisation manager
within older people's mental health services between 2000 - 2008.
During this time I was involved with the Dementia Collaborative and
engaged in projects with colleagues at the Care Services
Improvement Partnership; this in turn led to my involvement in the
development of the National Dementia Strategy and its
implementation in the north of England.
Other professional
activities…
Between 2009-2011 I served as the
Council member for International affairs for the British
Association of Occupational Therapists (BAOT) and
the College of Occupational Therapists (COT) and in this
capacity I was the BAOT delegate on the World
Federation of Occupational Therapists Council. During
the WFOT Council meeting in April 2010 I joined the WFOT
Education and research programme and I led a project to review
the WFOT Position Statement for Research. I had
the privilege to be involved in the RCOMH international
launch at the World Federation of Occupational Therapists Congress
in Santiago, Chile in May 2010. I have a particular interest in
outcome measurement and assessment and served on the College of
Occupational Therapists Steering Group for the National SNOMED
Occupational Therapy Subsets project on assessment and the Outcomes
Term SNOMED subset project. I currently serve on the
editorial board of the Occupational Therapy International
Journal.
Follow this link to my main university webpage for further
information.