The Echuca Regional Health occupational therapy team is celebrating OT Week with informative events. Pictured are Lily Kennedy, ERH OT manager Marie Wycisk and Rebecca Eade.
Photo by
Ryan Bellingham
There’s a common misconception that occupational therapists are mainly employed to install hand rails and shower chairs in client’s homes.
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Marie Wycisk, who has worked in the field for 30 years and leads Echuca Regional Health’s OT team, said the job entailed so much more.
“Occupational therapists are about enabling people to achieve and succeed in the things that are important for them,” she said.
“It’s about empowering people. It’s not a role for me: it’s a lifestyle.”
From enabling clients to pick up pens and write, to helping them regain independence, the job casts a wide net across physical, emotional and environmental spheres.
Therapists work in rehabilitation, outpatient appointments and community health to assist patients of all ages.
Lockington local Rebecca Eade was drawn to the role partly because of its broad scope.
She is currently working in acute care in a rotational role at ERH, where she has been happily employed for over a year.
“There’s so many different areas you can go into, so I’m really enjoying that,” Ms Eade said.
“When you see someone achieve the goal that they’re working towards ... it’s just a really, really good feeling, knowing you’ve helped them.”
Lily Kennedy became interested in an OT career while working as an allied health assistant at Goulburn Valley Health after finishing high school.
She went on to complete a university degree, moved to Echuca at the start of this year, and is now rostered on to the hospital’s NDIS rotation, which she has found rewarding.
“As we’re coming out of uni and still learning stuff, we get the opportunity here to move to different areas to broaden our knowledge,” Ms Kennedy said.
“Getting to see the smile on people’s faces when they achieve something they don’t think is possible, it’s very fulfilling getting to be a part of that.”
For Ms Wycisk, her gratification comes from seeing the profession grow, and watching her staff members blossom into talented clinicians.
Occupational Therapy Australia will mark OT Week from October 27 to November 2, and the ERH employees have planned activities to celebrate the occasion.
From 10am to 10.30am each day of the week, an information stall will be set up at the hospital, which will include a pressure care device passers by can try.
A lunch will be held for the hospital’s 15 OT staff members, and a guest speaker will discuss how it feels to be a client, giving clinicians an informative perspective.
Members of the Echuca Regional Health occupational therapy team.
Photo by
Ryan Bellingham
The aim of the week is to raise the profession’s profile and showcase everything the practice has to offer.
This year’s theme is ‘Occupational Therapy in Action’, which invites OTs to highlight the creativity, problem-solving and compassion at the heart of their practice.
“It’s important for people to know what we do so that we can help them,” Ms Kennedy said.
“I think to continue doing what we do best, increasing the population’s awareness of what we do is very important.”
At its core, Ms Wycisk said occupational therapy was about enabling people to achieve greater agency in their life.
Through the practice’s lens, an occupation can include someone’s vocation, domestic roles, social connections and other everyday duties.
“Everyone always says ‘I never understood what an OT does, but it’s great having you, because you do so many things’,” Ms Wycisk said.
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