Watch the UC People’s Tribunal for Palestine via livestream Monday, November 11th from 9am-5pm Pacific.

We the people have the power to hold all those complicit in genocide accountable! https://ucpeoplestribunal.org/livestream

FREE 2-part workshop on anti-oppressive documentation practices for healthcare professionals. In this workshop, we will discuss the ways that healthcare documentation has been and is used as a tool of oppression in healthcare contexts, as well as ways that we can leverage documentation as a tool for resistance against oppressive harms. This workshop will have an occupational therapy (OT) focus but applies to students, practitioners, and faculty in all healthcare programs and fields.

Part 1: Saturday, October 26th 10-2pm EST (lecture followed by a break followed by a hands-on workshop component)

Part 2: Saturday, November 23rd, 10-11:30am EST (1 month follow-up with attendees to further strategies)

Registration link: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0lcumgqjIqH9QQiUxtx2zZjA03BJN_RQMb#/registration

This workshop is being given through the Coalition of Occupational Therapy Advocates for Diversity (COTAD). 

Virtual POTAC Fall Forum on Inclusive Mental Health Practice

Saturday, September 28th 9am Pacific

The Mission of POTAC is to support the practice of psychiatric occupational therapy through education, information, and advocacy for consumers, health care providers and the community.

Register here (deselect options that don't apply to you first): https://buy.stripe.com/bIYbLd7GA4wl6KAfZ2

DisruptOT Book Club

Saturday 17th August 2024 on Zoom

10am Pacific / 8pm Uganda (EAT)

Free registration: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAoceqhrzMtG9wqJrszG660I10cRoSWhCHo

Join Victor Alochi of Uganda for the first meeting of the DisruptOT Book Club. We will be discussion the first chapter of Occupational Therapy Disruptors and Victor’s work. All are welcome, even if you have not read the book yet.

Receive 20% off the book for a limited time.

*Check your local time: www.worldtimebuddy.com

🙌🏾 Bodies of Culture Healing Circle

👏🏾 Saturday, July 27, 2024 @ 10-11am Pacific Time on Zoom (FREE)

🤲🏾 Open to BIPOC only, space is limited and active participation expected

👉🏾 Complete questionnaire for registration approval: http://tinyurl.com/DisruptOTHealing

This healing circle, facilitated by @otbayarea, has become an annual tradition for BIPOC Mental Health Month. All bodies of culture (anyone who identifies as Black, Indigenous, or a Person of Color) are welcome to attend this virtual group with the intention of fostering their own community of healing. This is why active participation is required. This is not a space to learn about or question people's experiences of racism. This is a space to heal together and grow our capacities for communal care.

For Unconference volunteers and speakers: to honor the hard work we all put in to bring the Unconference together and to celebrate each other as an act of resistance, please join us in a casual virtual chat and celebration on Saturday, June 1st at 10am or 6pm PDT. Two times to accommodate all time zones, you are welcome to join one or both. The Zoom link we be the same for both. Emails have been sent to all volunteers and speakers, check your inbox.

Divest from genocide! Healthcare Workers War Tax Resistance Webinar with Live Q&A

Sunday, March 17th 2 6pm PDT

Calling all healthcare workers and healers: as we embark on tax season, we are confronted with a deep dissonance — each year we, who strive to do no harm in our work, give thousands of our tax dollars to the military-industrial complex which bombs and destroys our communities here and abroad. From Palestine to Vietnam to Iraq, conscientious war tax objectors like Dr. Howard Waitzkin and Lincoln Rice of the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee have been choosing to take back control of their dollar for decades. Have you been looking for a tangible way to divest your capital from the U.S war machine? Come hear from them and ask any questions you may have!

Register and learn more here: bit.ly/WTR4health

Meet disruptors in-person after Day 2 of the San Diego Pain Summit on Saturday, March 2, 2024 from 5:00-6:00 PM in San Diego, California, the unceded homeland of the Kumeyaay Nation.

DisruptOT and PT After Dark are teaming up for a joint discussion session! Discussion will be on the relevant cultural, health, and social considerations of making our clinical work more accessible and inclusive. Pizza provided by WellWrx Consulting.

You do not need to be registered for the conference to attend. This will be a casual meet and greet for people looking to disrupt the healthcare system and how we treat pain.

Space is limited. Please RSVP to disruptotsummit@gmail.com to attend and for meeting details.

DisruptOT Book Festival

Join allied health professional authors from around the globe as they share their new and upcoming books. You will be able to meet each of the authors and ask questions.

• Saturday, January 20, 2024 @ 10:00-11:30am PST Registration: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAsf-uopzksH9xft7XJepNuhXVOxZJRY7Sy

• Check your local time here

• We will be using Zoom meeting and small breakout rooms for this event. For captions during breakout rooms, please download https://otter.ai in advance.

• The event will be free, virtual, and live only

DisruptOT End of Year Gathering and Book Celebration

Join us for a free virtual gathering to celebrate the release of our new book Occupational Therapy Disruptors and connect with our global community as we wrap up the year!

Two sessions offered to accommodate time differences. Join one or both!

• Saturday, December 2, 2023 @ 12-1pm PST Registration: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMlcuqgpjgpGtQMbailuXYp8TCI9jCLuBaO

• Saturday, December 2, 2023 @ 6-7pm PST Registration: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0ocu6vrTojHN0rrQztrKF9dGMYZ3GzJ2mv

• Bring a copy of your book to celebrate!

• If you don’t have a book yet, we have something special that will be announced during the event just for you!

• Check your local time here

• We will be using Zoom meeting and small breakout rooms for this event. For captions during breakout rooms, please download https://otter.ai in advance.

Occupational Therapy Disruptors: What Global OT Practice Can Teach Us About Innovation, Culture, and Community available on 21st November

This anthology collates 16 unique and powerful perspectives from occupational therapists around the globe, each highlighting the culture that they are a part of and how it informs their work and care. Ranging across almost every continent in the world including stories from Aotearoa to the Gaza Strip to Dhaka and beyond, The Disrupt OT Book of Community Guidance offers a decolonised re-examination of occupational therapy through a poignant, global lens.

Based on a series of interviews conducted by Sheela Roy Ivlev, each account provides candid and personal reflections and challenges found in occupational therapy in different cultural and political contexts and inspires occupational therapists to enrich their own practice with cultural awareness and reflexivity.

With reflection prompts and calls to action at the end of each chapter, this is an invaluable resource for occupational therapists looking to develop a more diverse, culturally-informed understanding of their practice.

Learn more: https://us.jkp.com/products/occupational-therapy-disruptors?_pos=1&_sid=1d2eb13e9&_ss=r

Ask your local bookstore or library to order a copy or purchase from Bookshop
If those aren't options where you are, it is available on Amazon

Share this info when ordering from your local independent bookstore:
Title: Occupational Therapy Disruptors
What Global OT Practice Can Teach Us About Innovation, Culture, and Community
Author: Sheela Roy Ivlev
ISBN: 9781839976650

July is BIPOC Mental Health Month and we will be bringing back our Bodies of Culture Healing Circle.

When: Saturday, July 29, 2022 @ 12-1pm PDT

Where: Virtual, complete questionnaire for registration approval

Registration: https://forms.gle/7a4M71S4bKCAZK3S9

*This event is open to BIPOC only, space is limited and active participation expected.

Many thanks to Leigh Ann Hilbert for this lovely graphic!

📣 #DisruptOT meet-up in Saskatoon!
 
Thursday, May 11, 2023 @ 6pm
Cohen's: 101 20th Street West, Saskatoon

We reserved a private room with limited space. Email disruptotsummit@gmail.com to attend.

Saskatoon is Treaty 6 territory – the traditional lands of the Cree, Saulteaux, Dene, Dakota, Lakota, Nakota, and Métis nations.

Dope graphics by Leigh Ann Hilbert

Low Carbon OT: The role of occupational therapists and other health professionals in climate mitigation?

Earth Day Virtual Workshop

Resources from event workshops (past):

Video 1 - IPCC Synthesis Report Video https://youtu.be/T9CeECpxtx8

Video 2- Indigenous Climate Action https://youtu.be/YooCa3A9c-0 

Here is the OTs4Future- Occupational Therapy-Climate Action Network (OT-CAN est. April 23/2023) information we have so far:

LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/ots4future 

Twitter: @OTs4Future 

Instagram: @ots4future 

Sign up to receive communications/express interest in OT-CAN

E: otclimateactionnetwork@gmail.com

E: bonifacegiovanna@gmail.com

Session Description:

Climate change is arguably the most significant threat to this planet and humankind. According to the World Health Organization, climate change is the biggest health threat facing humanity (WHO, 2021). In 2015, The Lancet Commission on Health and Climate Change posits that “tackling climate change could be the greatest global health opportunity of the century” (Watts et al., 2015 p. 1861). Although there is a high focus of media attention and coverage on climate change, primarily with a narrative full of doom and gloom (Arnold and Shorenstein, 2018), there is also hope.  In 2018, the World Federation of Occupational Therapists published guidelines on how occupational therapists can work towards a more sustainable occupational therapy practice, including guiding principles with reflective questions focused on reducing carbon footprint, but how has this call to action been received?

Occupational therapists and other health professionals are in a position to be part of the solution (Garcia Diaz and Richardson, 2021). With information sharing, small and large group discussion, this exploratory session will explore the role occupational therapists and other health professionals can play to adapt to climate change and to take a leadership role to actively engage in climate action in day-to-day practice.

About the presenters:

Giovanna Boniface (she/her)

Giovanna has been practicing as an occupational therapist for over 25 years. For the past five years, Giovanna has been in a senior leadership role at the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC) and is currently the Chief Implementation Officer. She has a long-time personal interest in climate action and the environment and has been leading climate action advocacy in the built environment and architecture in her work the RAIC for several years. Her current interest is intersecting climate and sustainability science knowledge from non-health sectors to accelerate climate action in occupational therapy and health care delivery generally.

Graduating from the University of British Columbia occupational therapy program in 1997, she has worked almost exclusively in private practice with expertise in rehabilitation and medical-legal work in the areas of spinal cord injury, traumatic brain injury and complex orthopaedics. Giovanna was the provincial occupational therapy consultant for the Workers' Compensation Board of BC (WorksafeBC) for several years and also worked for the Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists (CAOT) from 2011-2018 as the Managing Director of CAOT-BC and later as the National Director of Professional Affairs. In these roles with CAOT, she established and nurtured CAOT chapter growth in three provinces and territories, provided visibility and voice to numerous advocacy initiatives, and served as senior occupational therapy advisor regarding strategy and tactics.

In addition to her employment, Giovanna is an active volunteer in the Canadian occupational therapy profession and beyond. She has held many leadership roles at the former BC Society of Occupational Therapists including Director, Secretary and President, as well as President of the Canadian Chapter of the International Association of Rehabilitation Professionals. She is also a contributor to the published Standards of Practice for Life Care Planners (Third Edition) and in October 2018 was appointed to the International Commission on Health Care Certification’s Certified Life Care Planner Board of Commissioners. She was the President of CAOT from 2020-2022. She currently volunteers with an international organization providing clinical, program development and student supervision services to a rural and remote region in Southern India.

Giovanna holds the rank of Clinical Assistant Professor at the Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy and considers herself a life-long learner adding achievements of a Masters of Rehabilitation Science (2018) and a Certified Life Care Planner (2012). Giovanna completed a major research project in 2019 as part of the Master of Rehabilitation Science program, in addition, has been involved in several UBC OT student 547 capstone projects over the past 10 years as a clinical advisor.

Jeff Boniface (he/him)

Jeff has over 28 years’ experience as the owner and front-line clinician of a community-based private occupational therapy practice in Greater Vancouver. Currently, he also works as a clinical associate professor and associate academic fieldwork coordinator at the UBC Department of Occupational Science & Occupational Therapy. 

Jeff volunteers with the COTBC board and has been a past board vice chair. He currently serves as the Chair on the Patient Relations, Standards and Ethics Committee, and the Chair of the Discipline Committee, and is an active writer on the Case Development Sub-Committee. 

Jeff is passionate about environmental issues and believes we are in a position as OTs to be leaders to actively engage in climate action. 

Jeff spends his down-time with his wife and two children and volunteering for an international organization providing in-person and remote rehabilitation support to children and adults in a rural community in India.

Giovanna and Jeff acknowledge and give thanks to the Tsleil Waututh Nation whose traditional territory where we live and work.

Both Jeff and Giovanna are involved in a current research project “Perceptions of climate change and action among Canadian occupational therapists” which will be presented at the CAOT National Conference next month in Saskatoon, Canada.

References:

Arnold, E. and Shorenstein, J. (2018, May 29). Doom and Gloom: The Role of the Media in Public Disengagement on Climate Change. https://shorensteincenter.org/media-disengagement-climate-change/

Garcia Diaz, L. V., & Richardson, J. (2021). Occupational therapy’s contributions to combating climate change and lifestyle diseases. Scandinavian Journal of Occupational Therapy, 1-8.

Watts, N., Adger, W. N., Agnolucci, P., Blackstock, J., Byass, P., Cai, W., ... & Costello, A. (2015). Health and climate change: policy responses to protect public health. The lancet, 386(10006), 1861-1914. Retrieved from https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1479102/1/Colbourn_final%20commission%20-%20word.pdf

World Health Organization. (2021, October 30). Climate change and health. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/climate-change-and-health

Meet Alaa of @knowbiasot and catch up with #DisruptOT!

Wednesday, April 19, 2023 @ 9pm

Yard House 1300 Main St, Kansas City, MO

Kansas City is the ancestral homeland of the Kiikaapoi (Kickapoo), Washtáge Moⁿzháⁿ (Kaw/Kansa), 𐓏𐒰𐓓𐒰𐓓𐒷 𐒼𐓂𐓊𐒻 𐓆𐒻𐒿𐒷 𐓀𐒰^𐓓𐒰^ (Osage), Očhéthi Šakówiŋ (Dakota, Lakota, Nakota), Shawnee and Waⁿdát (Wandat/Wyandot/Wyandotte/Huron) peoples. Currently, there are more than 98 tribes in the Kansas City area.

Dope graphics by @life.with.leighann

Meet disruptors in-person after Day 1 of the San Diego Pain Summit on Saturday, February 18, 2023 from 6:30-7:30 PM in San Diego, California, the unceded homeland of the Kumeyaay Nation.

PT After Dark to follow. You do not need to be registered for the conference to attend. This will be a casual meet and greet for people looking to disrupt the healthcare system and how we treat pain.

Space is limited. Please RSVP to disruptotsummit@gmail.com to attend and for meeting details.

Dope graphics by Leigh Ann Hilbert

Reflections on 2022

• Two sessions offered to accommodate time differences.

• Register for one or both times to discuss how you’ve made good trouble in 2022 with disruptors from around the globe!

• Saturday, December 3, 2022 @ 10-11am PST Registration: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEkcOitpzMuGN13LAaICqDJqf8x0eN9dzyV

• Saturday, December 3, 2022 @ 7-8pm PST Registration: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAtfuGqqzsqH9Es0NNzCke1FXHW5Zptxkrc

• Check your local time here

• We will be using Zoom meeting and small breakout rooms for this event. For captions during breakout rooms, please download https://otter.ai in advance.

• Dope graphics by Leigh Ann Hilbert

Bodies of Culture Healing Circle

• Saturday, November 19, 2022 @ 11am-12pm PST. Check your local time here

• Open to BIPOC only, space is limited and active participation expected

• Complete questionnaire for registration approval: www.tinyurl.com/DisruptOTHealing

• Dope graphics by LeighAnn Hilbert

• Group facilitated by Sheela Ivlev