Students, thinking of attending COT Conference next year? SHOUT share their experiences

SHOUT with SHU lecturers & poster presenters  Julie Walters and Shirley Masterson 

Our aim at SHOUT, along with promoting occupational therapy, is to help support continuous professional development, both for our members and for those who attend our monthly Wednesday night talks. The range of health and social care topics covered at our events by clinicians and academics, the certificates we hand out to attendees and the thoughts we share at Wednesday Wind Down all aim to promote learning, reflection and provide evidence for CPD files. 

So it was only natural when a few of our members attended the COT Conference 2013 in Glasgow in June that they would reflect on their experiences and think about how themes encountered at conference related to study and future professional lives. 

And their advice to students thinking of going next year? 
"Go for it! It might feel like a long way to travel, at the end of a busy academic year when all you can think about is summer holidays, but the wide range of talks, presentations and people you meet make it more than worth it. And of course, there are the freebies! Who doesn't want a travel frisbee, a bendy ruler and a years' supply of pens?!"

SHOUT with Bournemouth lecturer and poster presenter Kirsty Stanley @Kirstyes

Flying the green flag of OT

Emma Wilsher, Sheffield Hallam University undergraduate and SHOUT member.

As a second year student coming to an OT annual COT conference for the first time, with my fellow SHOUT team members Julia-Helen Collins and Gill Smith who had been once before, I was overjoyed by the amount of OTs who came far and wide to celebrate, learn, share their knowledge and advocate for what they believe in. The green flags shone high and bright, as OTs came to be one and share their passion and love. The community vibe that was amongst us reminded me why I was becoming an OT and why I wanted to be part of the OT family. A sense of belonging was instilled in me and my passion to work in mental health was reinforced by the opening speech of Michael Iwama, who opened the COT conference on a high as I watched all OTs applaud his views on public health and saw how we were all singing from the same hymn sheet.

Sue Parkinson gave a magnificent talk on ‘beyond the model of human occupation screening tool’ and how the tool enables an OT to connect with the service user and make it more meaningful and client centred towards them.  She talked about the meaning and purpose of balanced lifestyle and environment and how this is crucial to enable a therapeutic process. I really felt this was beneficial to my area of interest and helped me to understand more about the model and its screening tool, enabling me to take away knowledge that I will be able to one day apply as a qualified OT.

The academia and copious amounts of assignments during the second year - all with hand-in dates around the same time – had been a test of my desire to fly the green OT flag. Trying to balance home life and university life as a single parent is difficult – spinning plates springs to mind. It’s a challenge for all future OTs to enforce what we are taught in lectures, seminars and workshops about maintaining a ‘balanced lifestyle’ and instilling meaningful activities into our own lives. Sue Parkinson emphasised this in her talk  - taking care of body and mind are key themes that contribute to a person’s sense of competence and pleasure, while leisure activities contribute to physical, social, emotional and cognitive health.

Going to conference and listening to many talks which all had a part in inspiring me, gave me great faith.  Listening to students who were talking about their findings from their dissertation papers and the results they had concluded allowed me to reflect on my second year and going forward into my final year of university. Reflection is key in my development, enabling me to see why I am doing this course and what I want to achieve and where I want to be in the coming years. Next year I want to stand where those students stood disclosing my findings and results from my dissertation, while flying my green flag high as a qualified OT.

I would like to shout out to all future OT students and those who doubt their abilities or the course - don’t lose the green flag – go to conference and let all there inspire you, speak to the stall holders who have a wealth of knowledge and to the many of people who are there and will one day be your OT family. This should relight the enthusiasm and bring back the reasons why you want to become a high flying OT.

With our poster

Three days of doing, being and becoming: a student’s journey along the "river of OT" at Conference 2013

Gill Smith, Sheffield Hallam University undergraduate and SHOUT member

Having just completed an Occupational Science elective at university, I may have simply been more attuned to Wilcock’s (1999) “Reflections on Doing, Being and Becoming”, but in many of the lectures or presentations I attended at the COT Conference 2013 I encountered this theme.

Conference was very much an opportunity for “doing”. With my fellow SHOUT team members Julia-Helen Collins and Emma Wilsher, I enjoyed the opportunity to exhibit a poster about our BAOT student group, as well as experience some of the challenges of later life by testing out an “age suit” in the exhibitor hall; great fun but also very thought provoking.

Just “being” in the company of so many occupational therapists from diverse areas of practice and around the country was good for the soul and encouraged reflection on my personal development and aspirations. But for me, more than anything else, conference was my “becoming”.

Before conference I pleased to see the end of a busy second year of seemingly endless essays and thankful for the summer break but now, after COT 2013, I am energised and ready for the rest of my student journey! Attending conference last year as an enthusiastic first year student, I was a little overwhelmed and eager to explore the community of OT. My journey, from student to practitioner, had begun as I jumped into the river of occupational therapy. This year, the current of conference has swept me further along my path, emersing me, as I ebb ever closer to employment and decisions about which way my career will flow. 

It is an exciting as well as challenging time to be becoming an occupational therapist with the many changes to the NHS and emerging areas of practice. Michael Iwama’s opening message to bring occupational therapy into the “river of public health” emphasised this. In my studies, it is the positive role of OT in preventing ill health and enabling people to maintain occupations, roles and identities through health promotion that has excited me most. Iwama’s call to take our practice into our own neighbourhoods spoke powerfully to me – I know now that this is where I want to be, working to make a difference to individuals’ lives within communities.

As an OT-in-training, attending conference is a fantastic way to become more professionally-minded. The networking opportunities with clinicians who may one day employ you, and the chances to talk to theorists whose books you have read, quoted in essays and committed to memory, is exhilarating. Much like practice placements, conference offers a tantalising glimpse of the working world of occupational therapy - it is so near and yet at times feels so far from reach as another year of study beckons in September. But there is still so much to learn and experience at university as I stream towards graduation, and hearing other students give excellent presentations was the motivation I needed to take the plunge, attempt to submit my own abstract to conference and hopefully become a presenter next year.

And it is this “becoming” that leads to “belonging”. Elaine Hunter spoke of her honour at being part of “Team Casson” through her delivery of the Elisabeth Casson Memorial Lecture. In a smaller way, I have enjoyed being part of “Team Conference”, a wide community of amazing people who are inspiring me to become one of them and, ultimately, find my place within OT. What a privilege it is to know that this is my future; that I may soon be able to call myself an occupational therapist and belong to this profession.

With Michael Iwama

Watch out for Julia-Helen Collins' reflection and advice coming soon....  

Suiting-up in the exhibitor hall...

Although we had a giggle trying on exhibitor Hewi's "age suit", commissioned by them and designed by a grad student to give an idea of what older age might feel like, it was also a very useful and emotive learning tool. The suit enabled us to gain an appreciation of the difficulties older people may face negotiating day-to-day occupations with impairments in their movement, vision or hearing. It was an uncomfortable, tiring and somewhat isolating experience and we felt quite emotional wearing it at times. Just walking and trying to position ourselves comfortably in Careflex's specialist chair was a challenge.

Tea and talks
Downtime between presentations was a great opportunity to grab a cup of tea or coffee and chat with conference friends old and new. It was great to put screen names from the online Twitter community to faces including the lovely @Helen_OTUK, @Kirstyes, @CharOTReilly and @Symbolic_Life. Cumbria University Masters student Michelle Perryman (@Symbolic_Life) has set up a fantastic project at her university to support OT students emerging into practice, find out more here: @Emerging2OT

It was wonderful to see both former and current Sheffield Hallam students deliver presentations or discuss their posters:

Becky Williams, a former Sheffield Hallam student, delivered a poster presentation about her experiences in US trauma centers as a result of the Nottingham Roosevelt Scholarship. Becky's drive, passion and warmth is inspirational, so its no surprise she was named an NHS Emerging Leader for 2013. We're hoping Becky will be able to speak at SHOUT this coming academic year! You can find her on twitter @_beckyOT and read her blog here: http://blog.travelpod.com/members/beckywilliamson

We enjoyed watching SHU graduate Fiona Roberston talking on boxing as occupation, and saw fantastic posters on role-emerging placements by SHU Masters students Hayley Pedley Clues, Charlotte Ann Wise, Suzy Booth and Raedin O'Sullivan. 

We were also really impressed with Arrows Connect, two Scottish graduates who have set up their own company producing easy-to-use CPD software. Check out their website here: http://www.arrowsconnect.com

Thank you 
We would like to say a really big THANK YOU to our local BAOT regional group, Trent Region, for generously aiding us with our conference tickets - thank you for your support to students, it is so appreciated.

That's all for now, but we'll be back in September with our new line-up of speakers and events for the next academic year. See you soon!

SHOUT

SHOUT attends COT Conference 2013!

We've had a wonderful time at the 2013 COT Conference in Glasgow, presenting our poster about how our local BAOT student group, SHOUT, helps promote continuing professional development for students (and clinicians). A highlight for us was the opportunity to meet Michael Iwama and so many other inspiring OTs and students from across the UK. We came away glowing about OT and proud to be a tiny part of the huge, diverse and beautiful OT community. Although we were, perhaps, more than a little relieved to be taking off our green T-shirts after wearing them for 3 days straight...!

Watch this space for our write up of our conference experiences and our forth coming programme of events for next academic year....

Interview with the Wonderful Claire Craig

This summer the SHOUT team had the opportunity to interview Sheffield Hallam University lecturer Claire Craig about her work at the university and Lab4Living. Over a quick cup of coffee before dashing off to a meeting, she discussed her research, talked about the thrill of receiving the COT Fellowship Award at this year's annual COT Conference and offered advice for students on conducting their own research.
  

Claire is part of the Active Aging project with Professor Gail Mountain, a community-based multi-million pound control trial intervention - the idea came from American research and has been translated for European use. 

Claire is also involved in the Euro-Education: Employability for All project, which looks at the role of OT education and aims to promote social change amongst disadvantaged groups in relation to work. Claire and an international team hastily wrote the bid for the £250,000 teaching grant over a weekend in Berlin - despite the exciting sounds and smells of the city drifting in through the hotel window, she regrets that there was no time to sightsee... 

And, as if that wasn't enough, Claire is working on Engaging Aging: practice-based research methods using art as a method of data collection, by using photography or children's drawings. Its an expression of what people have told them about their environments and their experiences, using critical articfacts to embody this. This project is now expanding to reach everybody, using the principle of "A Museum in a Box" to take the exhibiton Europe-wide, as Claire explains in more detail in the interview. 

Despite her huge success, Claire says that not everything has worked in the past but that she believes its important not to be overcautious in OT and not to worry if sometimes things don't work out as planned. 

"We're inventing the history of OT as we speak! It's an emergent profession, we're not there yet... but that's what is exciting about OT. We're not stuck like other professions." 

Claire says that what excites her most is seeing students take up this baton of enquiry, development and research. 

"Students are the future, its my privilege to teach and encourage."

Claire with colleagues from the EEE for All project. Photo property of Linkoping University 

SHOUT: Which piece of research are you currently working on?


Claire: "At the moment I am working on a piece of research with Professor Paul Chamberlain called 'Exhibition in a Box' - the work is taking place across 21 countries and seeks to understand the experiences of older people in these countries. We are using something called practice-based research methods focusing on critical artefacts as a way to stimulate discussion and to help older people to identify and articulate what is important to them. This is building on a previous piece of work which used exhibition as a method of data collection. That work was really interesting as part of it took place on the Taipei underground with the Museum of Contemporary art!!"

SHOUT: Could you ever have imagined that your research would reach this scale?

Claire: (Laughing) "I see myself as a completely normal person and what it shows is that if you have an open mind you can see where it takes you and achieve anything. When I first started researching, I felt that I would be rubbish at it but I remember Gail Mountain's words to me: research is an apprenticeship."

SHOUT: What inspires you about being involved in this research?

Claire: "This is a really exciting project. I really value its participatory nature - focusing on the older person as the expert and the scale of the work across all those countries!! It has the potential to be so wide-reaching and I think it could lead to some very interesting insights. Research is all about generating new knowledge and this project could offer a really useful starting point to understand how the experiences of ageing differ across countries."


SHOUT: What impact do you hope this will have on the health and social care sphere and on older adults?

Claire: "I really hope that in undertaking the research we can begin to understand more about the role that design plays in relation to quality of life for older people. Work from previous research projects undertaken has led to the design of real products that can improve well-being and increase participation in valued occupations."


SHOUT: Are there any areas of OT that you specifically feel need more research?

Claire: "As occupational therapists we definitely need to be involved in as much research as possible - research to enable us to understand the factors that impact on occupational engagement, research to explore the efficacy of our interventions. If we are to really demonstrate the effectiveness of occupational therapy we need the evidence base."


SHOUT:  Do you think there should be a greater number of randomly controlled trials conducted on OT interventions?

Claire: "This question of randomly controlled trials conducted on occupational therapy interventions is a very interesting one. We do need RCTs because they are a currency that the medical research world (and health) understand. They can provide a specific type of information, conducted in a specific way where variables are controlled as far as possible. Professor Gail Mountain (an amazing occupational therapist) is currently involved in a number of these and is really leading the way. 

However, and this is a big however, it is important to also recognise that we work with people and occupation doesn't fit into a tightly controlled box. There is a place for RCTs but there is also a place for more qualitative and participatory forms of research which seek to understand experiences and also work in such a way as to place the locus of control with the individual. I would say that different research paradigms have their place and one isn't necessarily better than the other - it just depends on what you are wanting to find out. The trick then is choosing the right approach to fit your question."


SHOUT: What advice would you give to students conducting a piece of research?


Claire: "The best advice I ever had about undertaking research is that research is essentially an apprenticeship. Don't worry that you don't know everything there is to know. I work with some amazing researchers who have been doing research for a long, long time and even these amazing people tell me that they are still learning. I think that is what is so exciting about it!!"

SHOUT: Have there been any particular pieces of student research that have caught your attention?

Claire:  "I think that every piece of student research I have supervised has caught my attention!! Each one is so individual - the subject chosen, the methodology and methods adopted, the findings of the research and the conclusions that are drawn. As a tutor I am always learning which is a lovely thing to be able to say.
"


SHOUT: How did it feel to be honoured with the COT Fellowship Award?


Claire: "The COT fellowship was extraordinary. The letter came through the post, and I just thought it was my annual subscription - so when I opened it and realised I was receiving the highest accolade that an OT can receive I thought they must have the wrong person! I felt incredibly moved and honoured. I am OT through and through.

It was such a lovely ceremony too, being able to share this with all of your peers. There aren't words really. I just feel very proud to belong to such an amazing profession. I think we are very lucky.
"

Today! SHOUT's First Evening Seminar of the Academic Year

We're back! Autumn brings a new term and a new schedule of SHOUT events. We've worked hard over the summer to pull together a varied line-up of talks by academics and health and social care professionals.

Later today SHOUT holds the first evening seminar of the academic season with Bob Collins on "Recovery Themes in Mental Health".

Come and join us in the Mary Badlands Theatre at our Collegiate Campus from 6-7.30pm, meet students and local clinicians and hear Bob's experiences of working as a Recovery Co-ordinator at Bradford and Airedale Early Intervention Team.

The session will explore the holistic and personalised nature of recovery and the important role of occupational therapy in facilitating social reconstruction. Bob's work focuses on optimising social and occupational recovery for young people following a first episode of pyschosis. A locally developed tool, presented at this year's COT Conference in Glasgow, will be introduced as a structure for the OT process; the "LifeChart" is an assessment, goal setting and action planning tool which emphasises a strengths-based and solutions-focussed approach, as well as providing evidence of personalised recovery outcomes.

Not to be missed!
Registration and refreshments open at 5.30pm.
Entry is £2 for students and BAOT members. Email the SHOUT team to book a seat: shout.team@hotmail.co.uk or just turn up tonight!

And that's not all....."Wind Down Wednesday" takes place afterwards at The Botanical pub on Eccelsall Road: drinks and an opportunity to reflect on the session. Thoughts are tweeted to our SHOUT followers and a wider audience.

See you there!

SHOUT Interviews Local OTs - Part Two

Here's the second part of our train interview, conducted on our way to Glasgow, with locally based OTs Helen Saunders (founder of SHOUT) and Sue Peters. They talk about their thoughts on COT conference 2012, share memories of past conferences and give advice to students on attending conference in future years. 

What are you looking forward to most at conference?

Helen: Being able to experience a good mix of presentations in one place, as well as the free ice cream and the possibility of a free ‘brollie!

Sue: The whole experience, plus the opportunity to network and get a showcase of what’s going on in other people’s practice and, of course, all the freebies you get!

Have you got any favourite memories from previous conferences?

Helen: This is the fourth year I’ve attended conference and in the past I’ve enjoyed presenting a Trent regional poster; one year there was a great workshop with Greg Stafford about the political environment; the parties we’ve been to have been good fun and past council member’s lunches have always been a good opportunity for meeting higher up people.

Sue: This is my third conference and I’ve always loved meeting lots of people in the profession and then keeping in touch with them throughout the years.

What advice can you give to students attending conference?


Helen: Go to as many seminars and workshops as you can, take time to go to the exhibitors and see the poster presentations.

Sue: Go out and meet lots of other students, compare and contrast your courses and what you do on them so you can find ways to improve your uni experience.

How does conference impact your practice?

Helen: Through past conferences I’ve learnt about, and developed my use of, MOHO for sensory integration and people with learning disabilities – that’s been really important to my practice.

Sue: After conference you go back to work feeling enthusiastic, prepared to make changes and knowing what to do to move things forward. You feel empowered and can give positive feedback to other team members about what is happening in other parts of the profession.

If you presented something at conference, what would it be and why?

Helen:  In the past I’ve presented a Trent region poster with Wendy [Ferguson]. We were really nervous when we discovered we had to give a seminar, but it turned out to be a really good experience and I think I would do something like that again with the regional committee to show what local groups, like SHOUT, are doing in the region.

Sue: I’d like to present something related to my practice with amputees, perhaps new guidelines for MDTs on how to work with new amputees. 

Why do you think it’s important for OTs to attend conference?

Helen: Conference is necessary to keep up to date with OT and practice. It also helps keep your CPD up to scratch for HPC, as well as enthusing you when you return to work.

Sue:  I think you can take so much away from conference as a full learning experience, but last year’s message of being a “meerkat OT” really worked for me! It describes OTs as forward thinking and staying involved, integrating with other services. Through conference you can link-in with others, use the network opportunities to create bench-marks and create the best care experience for your patients as possible. You also feel like part of the OT community, conferences help to prove our worth as a profession and with all the changes going on in the NHS at the moment using conference appropriately means that we have a better chance of keeping our jobs.

SHOUT Interviews Local OTs

The SHOUT Team was lucky enough to share a train ride with local OTs Helen Saunders and Sue Peters on the way up to the COT Conference in June. We made the most of this opportunity and carried out a brief interview, finding out about their experiences as students and practising OTs, and tips for attending conference.

In between sips of tea they answered our hastily formed questions as we sped towards Scotland.
Look out for the surprise question at the end!

We're interested to know how long you've been practising and what area you've specialised in?

Helen: I retrained, having worked as a nurse, and have been practicing for 4 years. I started out in adult social services, then elderly mental health and have gone on to work in learning disabilities.

Sue: I've been practising for 7 years, and I'm a band 6 working in surgery and amputations at Doncaster Royal Infirmary. I started out in acute medicine through a rotational post, moving into surgery and then forensic learning disabilities. I then worked as a locum, with amputees, and in adult mental health.

What has changed since you first started practising?

Helen: The Agenda for Change.... And there were more jobs!

Is this where you imagined you'd be when you were a student?

Helen: Yes! I always knew I wanted to work with people with learning difficulties.

Sue: I thought I wanted to work in community mental health. I never thought I would want to work in forensics - but I loved it!

What did you love about studying at Sheffield Hallam?

Helen: The EBL (evidence based learning) groups were a good way to learn. EBL has its pros and cons but I found this a valuable part of the course. I also really enjoyed setting up SHOUT during my time there.

Sue: Its a great course with a good mix of theory and practice, and supportive staff. I agree about the EBL sessions - they help to prepare you for MDT working, can influence your practice and prepare you for continuous learning.

Helen, as the founder of SHOUT, what led you to set up this student-led group?

I wanted to bring students and clinicians together. I felt there weren't enough opportunities for students to mix with clinicians and make connections. SHOUT is also good for clinicians in practice, helping with CPD.

Can you think of any advice you'd like to share with current students?

Helen: SHOUT - get involved in it! Have a heart for it and be enthusiastic about it. For anyone working in the SHOUT team: get the networking going at the evening events, introduce students to clinicians and vice versa - get people talking! (SHOUT explained that this is one of our key objectives for the new term of events. We've noticed that people attending don't always feel comfortable talking to people they don't know, so we'll be going round getting people chatting and making introductions!)

Sue: Keep going. The 2nd year is hard but try to enjoy the student experience. And remember to network!

What do you enjoy most about being on the BAOT Trent Regional Board?

Helen: Meeting like-minded people and networking.

Sue: Yes, meeting other OTs, and the opportunity to stretch yourself and gain new skills. 

Are there any hot topics that have caught your interest at the moment?

Helen: Sensory integration. This is very new, only being incorporated into treatment in the last 10 years. I did my dissertation in autism, so this area really interests me.

Sue: Extending the scope of practice. I would like to see better support for people with acute needs out in the community. Discharge planning. Needs are constantly changing but there is no one to follow through prosthetic rehab. Also, funding: looking at what other services are doing in other areas and learning from this.

OK, time for a silly question I was recently asked in a job application: if you were an animal, which one would you be?

Helen: A zebra. 

SHOUT: Care to elaborate? 

Helen: No.
SHOUT: OK then.

Sue (as the train goes through a tunnel): A mole - I feel like one right now!

What good sports! Stay tuned for the rest of our interview with Helen and Sue on their previous experiences of attending conference and what they were most looking forward to at COT Conference 2012. 

Claire Craig Honoured with a COT Fellowship Award

On June 12th 2012, at the annual COT Conference, Sheffield Hallam University Senior Lecturer and researcher Claire Craig was honoured with a Fellowship Award in recognition of her special contribution to occupational therapy. 


As Naomi Hankinson, chair of the BAOT/COT Council said, Claire is a talented and inspirational educator who generates and implements innovative ideas in education and practice. Much of her work centres on the important role that occupational therapy plays in the well-being of older people and people with dementia. She is a role model and a wonderful ambassador for the profession nationally and internationally and is widely acknowledged by her peers and students.

SHOUT was there to witness it - what a wonderful occasion, we are so proud of you Claire! Congratulations from all the team.

SHOUT Attends the Annual COT Conference 2012!

The SHOUT Team attended the COT conference last week. We handed out leaflets and spread the word far and wide about the SHOUT, making many new contacts. And, of course, we made the most of the freebies!

On Tuesday 12th June, after a mad dash to get to the station on time, we boarded the first of three trains to take us up to Scotland. Despite having booked different coaches we found seats with Helen Saunders and Sue Peters from the BAOT Trent regional group and, being cheeky students, made full use of our captive audience - watch this space for our train interview!

We met other OTs, students and COT staff during the long journey, and arrived 5 hours later feeling energised to jump feet first into the conference.

As soon as we arrived in the huge and sunny central hall of the SECC the tiredness set in, but it was a quick dash to the loos and luggage store before heading straight into our first workshop of the afternoon.  And what a great start to the conference it was: Jennifer Creek with an Introduction to the European Conceptual Framework for OT.

“Language shapes the way we think, and determines what we can think about” stated Benjamin Lee Whorf  (1956) and this was echoed in Creek’s session: words represent concepts and are our tools for thinking and communicating. Defining terms, as the European Conceptual Framework has done, and using these in our shared professional language helps us all to understand what we are talking about and present ourselves with a level of professionalism to other medical and healthcare workers during a time when we need to prove our worth.  Creek asked whether, as a profession, we have been better at using poetic language than scientific language. We need to ensure that we are accurate and precise in how we communicate, using standardised terms and scientific language whilst still keeping the heart of OT and our unique way of expressing our understanding of the person.

During the Elizabeth Casson Memorial Lecture, Dorothy Gould got us thinking about communication and the language we use with service users when she spoke alongside Dr. Claire Ballinger. Her moving message is one to remember on placement: an OT’s most important quality is warmth. Ballinger also called for advocacy and clear articulation of OT in the political arena, inspiring us to brave collective action. Julia Scott reiterated this in her closing talk to the conference, encouraging us to share our stories and use words powerfully to speak UP for OT.

Not to miss out on an opportunity to promote SHOUT, we joined Twitter to participate in the conference buzz. Following tweeters, such as the BAOT, students and clinicians, was a great way to find out about interesting events going on or summaries of sessions we didn't attend. SHOUT was even tweeted by Mr Twitter himself, the COT Social Media Officer!

 Shouting about SHOUT!

Attending conference was a wonderful experience. We made new friends and felt inspired and honoured to be in the company of so many fantastic OTs and students. It was a real joy to be in the audience when our SHU lecturer Claire Craig received her Fellowship Award (see next post). We particularly enjoyed the opportunity to promote SHOUT to anyone and everyone who was willing to listen, and wore our green T-shirts with pride! 

 We're already looking forward to next year - COT Conference 2013, here we come!