Not So Terrible Palsy Is 6!

Happy New Year and happy 6 years of blogging! I know, I’m quite good at writing a corny blog reflecting on previous years etc, etc. Therefore, this year I’ve been trying to think of what I can do that still marks the significance of my blog without getting too cheesy. I have a few blogs that I want to write in the new year about what I’ve been teaching recently and would love to write a blog on the new CanMop model. Yet, as the lead-up to the winter break was hectic that over the Christmas period, I crashed! 

So, I thought I’d give you a brief overview of how my blog has influenced my teaching before I go into the specifics over the next few blogs. Even before I started my role as a Graduate Teaching Assistant I was delivering sessions on ableism in occupational therapy and health care at Huddersfield so when I landed the role I was given this session of course I loved it! I often do the session with a colleague and delivering the session is our favourite lectures (undergraduate and apprentice) of the year. Alongside this, I always pointed out ableism within any other sessions I was in teaching or supporting and yes, of course, I always want more but I was thankful for the few sessions I had within the jammed-pack curriculum.

Then, in 2023 I got asked to deliver a session on political activism to the third-year students and learners. Although the session was challenging to put together it was something that I thoroughly enjoyed putting together I talked about issues such as colonialism, wars and the need for cultural humility. Yet, the session was 3 hours therefore I didn’t have much chance to get deep into the issues which although I wanted to also felt right for me as a newly qualified OT. 

2024 came and I got told my 3-hour sessions now needed to be broken down into 2 3-hour lecturers about global and national politics within the profession. Me, political? I was so certain that I wasn’t going to do a good job of the sessions. You know what I didn’t, and that is because it’s impossible to do a good job of such huge topics in just 6 hours but I did the best I could do, and had such a great summer putting the presentations together!

What I feel most thankful for in delivering these sessions is that within our teaching team, there are occupational therapists with many more years of experience than me and I still got the chance to do the sessions and was valued. This is when it always comes back to the blog and we get cheesy because if it wasn’t for the blog this wouldn’t have happened. I’m in an unusual job for someone in my position and yes I probably got the job in the first place because of my activism work but without it, I would find it hard to make my current role at work my own.

Yes, I don’t do the typical freelancing work and at times I can be very quiet but my 6th year of Not So Terrible Palsy has taught me a lot about activism and that activism is a lot more than posting on social media. I am very lucky to have worked on some great projects behind the scenes this year as well as publishing my book of course. I have also just recently graduated from my PGCert and am now qualified to teach occupational therapy students!

When, I say happy 6 years of NSTP I mean happy 6 years of being an activist whatever that looks like NSTP is not just a website it is everything that I am as a professional and everything that I do and will continue to do going forward. 

I hope that the 7th year will bring more blogs as I enjoy life without anything happening behind the scenes for a while (not for too long though – you know what I’m like). However, it may not and that’s okay because I know everything that I do was developed through the grass routes of the blog and although a blog may not always come out of the work I do my blogs have still very much informed the work I do. 

Happy 6 years of being an activist to me!

Thank you for reading,

Georgia x