Читать книгу Occupational Group Therapy - Rosemary Crouch - Страница 8

Sharon Brintnell

Rosemary Crouch and I met when we worked on many World Federation of Occupational Therapy (WFOT) initiatives such as the Education Committee. We met frequently at WFOT conferences and council meetings all over the world. In Ottawa in 1998 she became a Vice President of WFOT and I was Vice President (finance). Through our shared interests in education, mental health and psychiatry, as well as the global development of the occupational therapy profession, we became very close friends and always travelled in the countries where our meetings took place for a week or two together afterwards. Many happy times were had also with our respective husbands in South Africa, touring the wonderful game parks.

Throughout the many years of my knowing Rosemary, her passion has never waned from promoting excellence in occupational therapy education particularly in Africa and interventions for persons with mental illness. She also is recognised as an expert clinician in mental health and psychiatry. I have marvelled at and admired her energy and work ethic in leadership positions across academic, practice and regulatory domains ultimately in service to the public. Rosemary's influence remains on the curricular development of occupational therapy academic programmes in Tanzania, Uganda, Mauritius and Pakistan. Her mentorship in practice and writing has expanded the opportunities of many South African and other occupational therapists in sub‐Saharan Africa to share their knowledge and expertise. By authoring a chapter in one of the two texts she edited solely or the four she co‐edited with Vivyan Alers, these writers informed the world of the practice and research advancement in mental health occupational therapy and an African perspective on practice. The Crouch Bursary Fund was set up by Rosemary with the assistance of Vivyan to support the advancement and research of occupational therapy in psychiatric and mental health fields. Its funding comes from the royalties of their texts. Rosemary's encouragement and participatory manner in teaching has had an indelible effect on practitioners, undergraduates and postgraduate students.

Writing a forward for a new text is not an opportunity frequently offered, let alone to me. Rosemary Crouch is an extraordinary individual whose concern, dedication and efforts to the further development of the occupational therapy profession in Africa and the world have been reflected throughout her entire career. It is particularly evident through her promotion of knowledge dissemination through writing and taking on the authorship of this new book.

Occupational Group Therapy (OGT) is dedicated to Rosemary's dear friend and past collaborator, Vivyan Alers. The text is an advancement on group work, taking its core from emotional intensity awareness and occupational science writing. Though the text is now authored by Rosemary, its genesis arose from many discussions between these close friends in the garden and through observations at professional meetings in Africa and internationally. Finally, it was obvious that there was need to readdress action methods in different group experiences. A joint submission to the publisher for this initiative was accepted, but sadly Vivyan passed away suddenly in 2018 before her thoughts could be captured in her own words.

Throughout the chapters, readers will gain grounding in new ways of addressing familiar concerns as well as be challenged to expand their own offerings in occupational therapy groups. The collective experience of these two well‐known and respected collators will be evident though expressed through a singular voice. There is no one more able to undertake the task than my dear friend Dr Rosemary Crouch.

It is my pleasure to invite you to explore this new exciting text with the view of first learning about and perhaps later experimenting with some of the techniques in your own work.

Professor Emerita Sharon Brintnell

Department of Occupational Therapy

Alberta University

Edmonton, Canada.