Karen is currently (May 2014) the acting Manager of the Richmond Community Mental Health Team and Anne Vogel Primary Care Clinic, in Richmond, BC, and has been the Vancouver Coastal Health Practice Coordinator of Occupational Therapy (OT) for Richmond since 2010. Her primary motivation going in to her masters was to develop her research skills. While the MRSc offered development in a broad range of skills and knowledge, she says: “the nice thing was the flexibility that allowed me to make it work for what I needed, which was more of a research focus. It really highlighted skills in how to access evidence that supports practice, and I learned research process, conceptualization, ethics – all of that was new to me”.
Karen spoke to the applicability of the program: “Every time we did a project we tried to apply it at work; the MRSc was applicable in every single course”. The psychosocial program Karen developed during her MRSc has resulted in improved services for clients undergoing bariatric surgery, a procedure to restrict and/or re-route the digestive tract in order to address serious obesity. The program has grown to require two permanent part-time OT positions, and now ensures that people referred for bariatric surgery in Richmond are assessed for mental health concerns, have functional goals set before surgery and are offered group therapy when indicated. Karen’s work addressed what was a major gap identified in both the literature and her workplace. Karen has extended her research of this program beyond her MRSc and the results of the first two years are extremely promising. Surgical clients who participated in the OT-run psychosocial group therapy program reported significantly increased levels of occupational performance and satisfaction, which remained improved at six- and twelve-months post-group completion. Group participants also experienced improved self-esteem and a reduction in symptoms of depression. Karen’s findings will be presented at the International Congress of the World Federation of Occupational Therapy (WFOT) in Yokohama, Japan in June 2014.
When asked about her future, Karen responded: “I think it [the MRSc] has opened my mind to my career potentially taking new directions- there are other possibilities related to research and the applicability of research in the workplace. Research used to feel like something people at UBC did. I was a consumer of the research, I would read a lot, but it still seemed separate. Now I feel it is something I can contribute to”.
By Theresa McElroy