Occupational Therapy Is Widely Developed in Australia

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26540, 15 August 1947, Page 2

Occupational Therapy Is Widely Developed in Australia

An indication of the extent to which occupational therapy had developed in Australia during recent years, was given in an interview with the Daily Times by Miss M. E. Webb, who took up her appointment in occupational therapy at the Dunedin Public Hospital during the week. A teacher of arts and crafts at the Samuel Marsden School for Girls, Miss Webb was appointed in 1942 as representative of the Joint Council of the Red Cross and S. John Ambulance Societies of Australia on the Dutch hospital ship, Oranje. With New Zealand and Australian nurses, she helped to care for Allied servicemen of many nationalities, teaching them handiwork to occupy their days of convalescence. Although most of the patients had never dope any type of craft work they learned quickly and much of the work completed was of a very high standard.

Realising the success of this work in lifting the men from mental depression, Miss Webb decided to continue the study of occupational therapy after the war, and after having taught crafts at a sanatorium in Hawke’s Bay fpr two years, she went to Sydney to gain her diploma. This is the only training centre in Australia, Miss Webb said, and should not be confused with the School of Arts and Crafts in Melbourne, which is run by the Red Cross Society. The standard set by the school is very high and the student is required to do intensive study of anatomy and psychology in conjunction with every branch of handcraft, combining the three in her treatment of the patient Under the close supervision of doctors the department works in co-operation with the physiotherapy department. Since the cessation of the war, the development of the work in Australia has been such as to demand the extension of the present two-year course to three years, and it was hoped to make the course reciprocal with that of Great Britain. A great deal of beneficial treatment was being carried out in Australia with children, particularly good results being achieved in dealing with infantile paralysis, Miss Webb said. A new field which had been opened up for occupational therapy was the treating of spastic -paralysis. In dealing with these cases a great deal of patience was necessary on the part of both the therapist and the patient, as results were extremely slow in being effected, the normal movement of a limb sometimes taking 12 months to achieve. The new spastic centre at Mossman Bay, Sydney, received children from the age of one year, and here the efforts of doctors, nurses, physiotherapists and occupational therapists were meeting with success. Once a private home, the building stands in lovely grounds with wide lawns, gardens and flagstoned paths. Each day the patients, none of whom is an inmate, are conveyed to the centre by buses

oi by private cars arranged by the officials, and while there receive educational instruction from trained teachers f who work in conjunction with the medical staff.

Studied and specialised methods of teaching are used; for instance, a child who suffers from spastic paralysis of the arm or hand is taught to spell by the use of large lettered blocks instead of a pencil. The centre is maintained by the private enterprise of the parents of spastic patients. Miss Webb, previously a resident of Wellington, is a grand-daughter of the late Mr Herbert Webb, a well-known Dunedin solicitoil She will work as assistant occupational-therapist to Miss H. Barton at the Dunedin Public Hospital.