An occupational therapy student at the School of Health Professions has been offered a full-time post as occupational therapist at award winning charity Kids Company on completion of her course. Candia Kearsley originally worked as Kids Company's first ever occupational therapist as part of a clinical placement on the MSc Health through Occupation course.
"I negotiated my original clinical placement with Kids Company myself. It was an organisation I had heard a lot about and was very interested in working for" explains Candia.
"Camila Batmanghelidjh who runs the charity has long been an inspiration to me. I had to have an interview and meet various people to secure the placement. It turned out there was no occupational therapist at the charity so I explained what occupational therapy is and how I thought it may benefit the children and young people at the charity. I also had to secure supervision for the placement and was lucky enough to find a wonderful occupational therapist at a nearby NHS adolescent mental health unit who was willing to take this role.
"Whilst on placement, I worked at the charity's educational and life skills academy in South-East London which has been specifically developed to work with young people who reject or have been rejected from other educational facilities due to their complex behavioural or emotional needs. The placement was a challenging, yet wonderful experience. I worked with a small client group of young people aged 16-24 and their Key Workers, engaging in a wide range of interventions from life skills training to self-esteem building exercises. The main aim of my placement however, as it was an emerging role placement, was to promote occupational therapy and think about how it could work with the charity's client group as a whole.
"Having to explain occupational therapy to young people and staff from a wide variety of backgrounds and cultures, who in the main had never heard of occupational therapy, was extremely beneficial for me. It ensured I knew the core principles of occupational therapy inside out and gave me invaluable experience of adapting my communication skills to get the messages over appropriately.
"The placement also gave me excellent experience of working independently. Although I received fantastic support from the staff and young people, and one hour occupational therapy supervision per week, I was responsible on a day-to-day basis to ensure my practice was safe, ethical, client-centred, culturally relevant and meaningful to the client group. I also wanted to ensure the young people and staff understood not only what we were doing but why, as I wanted to empower them to become their own occupational therapists.
"Since finishing my placement Kids Company has offered me a role as their first full-time occupational therapist, to begin once I complete my course. I will be based at the educational and life skills academy where I had my placement. Part of my role will be to promote allied health professional students carrying out their negotiated placements at the charity, so I will be keeping in contact with the School of Health Professions."
For more information on Kids Company visit www.kidsco.org.uk.
