Invitation

Occupational Therapy Australia is pleased to invite you to participate in the 2020 Virtual OT Mental Health Forum on Monday 16^th November in Melbourne. The forum is an invaluable event for occupational therapists working across every area of mental health practice in Australia. The forum provides the opportunity for us to come together and exchange ideas, to share practices and challenges, to network and meet new colleagues and to learn from an exciting array of current OT mental health practice and research activity.

The forum began as a small initiative in the 1990s and has developed to be a national biennial event attended by over 250 occupational therapists. In the last forum we had representatives from all states, and 51 presentations from occupational therapists working across a diverse range of mental health practice areas.

The theme for this year’s forum is Connect to Create Change. This theme aims to inspire occupational therapists to share the innovations that create change and expand our role in mental health. This includes creating change in practice, creating change in systems and organisations, creating change in social policy, creating change through research and education and creating change for consumers by enabling them to engage in occupations that are important and meaningful to them.

The program this year promises to be interesting and inspiring. Every time the forum is held, we see more occupational therapists presenting the amazing work they are doing. This growth reflects the passion, dedication and strength of occupational therapists in mental health. The forum will feature oral presentations, poster displays and occupation stations. Please submit your abstracts to share your innovative ideas for creating change in mental health. As always, all kinds of abstracts are welcome and we plan to have a wide range of topics included in the program.

Please join us to share experiences, ideas, innovations and to celebrate all that is great about occupational therapy in mental health.