ENOTHE Annual Meeting 2018

ENOTHE Annual Meeting 2018

Hi all,

I recently attended the European Network of Occupational Therapists in Higher Education (ENOTHE) Annual Meeting. I was there to present on the role of Occupational Therapy students in delivering the Sustainable Development Goals. Due to the time constraints of the presentation, I focused initially on Goals 3 and 13 of the Sustainable Development Goals. Goal 3 aims to ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all at all ages and Goal 13 looks at climate action - take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts. I chose these as I felt they allowed some consideration of social, economic and environmental sustainable development within the remit of Occupational Therapy students across practice and research.  

I used the attached diagram (potential student roles in occcupational therapy) during the presentation to consider what aspects of research and practice can, at present, be influenced by Occupational Therapy students to promote sustainable development.

During the conference poster presentations there was a poster which looked at sustainable development in Occupational Therapy from a French perspective. There was also a presentation exploring employment as a future sustainable development ‘goal’ in Occupational Therapy.

From my observations of other posters, presentations and workshops at the conference, when discussing the sustainable development goals, there was a focus toward considering sustainability in terms of social transformation and economic development, with very limited discussion of sustainability from an environmental perspective.

Does this align with your observations within the workplace or place of study? If you have any thoughts on this please comment below.

Niamh