Attending the OT Australia Conference 2023
By Bill Wong, OTD, OTR/L (He/Him/His)
Hello everyone! I had the pleasure to attend the Occupational Therapy Australia (OTA) conference in Cairns in June 2023. Unlike their counterparts in the United States, Canada, and UK, the OTA conference is held every 2 years. his was the first in-person OTA conference since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
For those not familiar with OT conferences outside of the US, you will find that conferences in Australia, UK, and Canada have their own unique flow and character. In OTA, every day has an opening and closing plenary session. Each plenary session lasts between an hour and a half and 2 hours. Every day also has morning tea and lunch, as well as afternoon tea for days 1 and 2. Each session is relatively short; an e-poster spotlight presentation is about 4 minutes long, an oral presentation is about 8 minutes long, and a panel is about 30 minutes long. Meanwhile, as in Canada, land acknowledgment is important. Every plenary session at the OTA conference began by acknowledging the First Peoples who lived on and cared for the land on which the conference was held.
For this year, there were about 1200 total attendees in-person and online. Although I was part of 3 presentations at the OTA conference, I managed to catch all of the climate change and sustainability sessions. The first 3 were consecutive oral presentations before lunch on day 1. The first presentation, by Helen Jeffery, was on “Therapeutic Use of Nature- Implications for Occupational Therapy.” The second presentation, by Tenelle Hodson, was on “Occupational Therapists’ Perceived Knowledge, Attitudes, and Skills in Relation to Environmental Sustainability.” The third presentation, by Michael Curtin, Tracey Parnell, and Allison Walker, was entitle, “Occupational Therapy in the Recovery Stage Following a Natural Disaster.” These presentations were encouraging signs that the OT community in Australia is making progress in climate change and sustainability.
The final session on climate change and sustainability was the conference’s closing plenary panel by Tenelle Hodson, Cait Sinclar, and Yessie Mosby. Unlike in most climate change and sustainability sessions I have heard in OT, an indigenous perspective was included in the panel. Yessie, who has taken on the UN as one of the Torres Strait Eight, movingly shared the impact of climate change and sustainability on him and his tribe.
During this conference, I made some great connections and reconnections with colleagues discussing climate change and sustainability. The first person was Tenelle Hodson. We managed to exchange information about the progress US and Australia have made in climate change and sustainability in OT. I was very pleased to hear that OT Australia is launching a working group on climate change and sustainability and Tenelle was a big part of it. The second person was Brownyn Paytner, who is also an admin on a Facebook group called “NatureOTs- connect and grow”. I was proud to share with her 2 recent TEDx talks by OTEA members- Kelly DeMarco and Jillian Clancy. The final person was a former guest speaker at an OTEA meeting- Marie-Josee Drolet. I was very surprised that she still remembered me when we were at the welcome reception at the end of day 1. During our conversation, she asked about how OTEA is progressing. Then, she surprised me by wanting to join us in our monthly meetings on a more regular basis. So, I am sure more of us are happy that she will return.
Of course, I also had some fun, too. As a city boy, I got to participate in a few activities to interact with nature more. My first experience was going on Skyrail Rainforest Cableway. It is a scenic tourist cableway overlooking Barron Gorge National Park. My second experience was visiting Green Island, as I got on a glass bottom boat to see the Great Barrier Reef, as well as some live crocodile feeding. My third experience was a tour of Daintree Forest, where I got to see more crocodiles. These experiences are great reminders that each of us has an important role in preserving the climate.
In conclusion, I had a great trip to Cairns. I am hoping that my experiences can inspire more OTEA members to consider submitting abstracts about climate change and sustainability to the next OT Australia conference.
