Geraldine Tay
Occupational Therapist
Institute of Mental Health
Introduction
After my A Levels, I was awarded the NHG Allied Health Scholarship award to study Occupational Therapy in 2003. Spending 3 years at Nanyang Polytechnic followed by 1 year at the University of Sydney , I graduated with a Bachelor of Applied Science (Occupational Therapy), and started working at IMH in 2007.
As an Occupational Therapist, I make use of activities to help rehabilitate patients, be it in their self-care, work or leisure areas of life. Due to the patients' mental illnesses, they have deficits in the cognitive and psychosocial abilities. Hence the use of activities, such as craft groups, social skills training, stress management groups etc, can help them in learning how to cope in living in the community, prevent further deterioration , and improve their quality of life.
How does your work contribute to NHG vision and mission?
Occupational Therapists believe that activities can help rehabilitate patients regardless of their age and social background. With activities, patients are meaningfully engaged, which helps in the prevention of further deterioration of their illness. This I believe is very much in line with NHG's vision of adding years of healthy life.
Client-centred practice is another philosophy of Occupational Therapy. As such, OTs take into account the patients' interest to select appropriate activities to aid in their rehabilitation. Not only that, to help cater to a larger number of patients, the Occupational Therapy department has 3 satellite centres apart from the main centre in IMH. All these I feel help me to work in line with NHG's mission, and also with the Mental Health Blueprint as developed by the Ministry of Health.
What are some challenges that you have faced during your course of work
In less than 6 months after I joined IMH, I was given the task of starting up a new programme - Craft Creates, a programme where patients create craft items for sale to society. As part of setting up this programme, I had to deal with many logistical and operational aspects.
Not only that, I also have to venture into the untrained territory of the school of business like branding, marketing, advertising etc, to help further promote the products in order to educate the public that even people with psychiatric disabilities can still contribute to society. At the moment, I am working on improving Craft Creates catalogue, so that it can serve to be another platform to further publicize the creative works of the patients.
Moreover, with a new team just on board and an added new section being integrated further into my current work scope, I have to re-look into manpower issues, logistical issues, and further revamp the programme for patients to receive better quality service.
What are some of the memorable moments you have experienced in NHG?
Due to the nature of my work section, I have to go on sale bazaars and attend events, even on weekends. My most memorable one would be the World Mental Health Day held last year at Plaza Singapura. I had a supportive team then who were willing to sacrifice their weekends to help out in the event. Not only that, we had the opportunity to conduct interactive sessions of pottery to educate the public more on what we do, adding to the success of the event.
What do you enjoy most about working in NHG?
It would have to be the people. I am thankful that I have a group of good friends in my workplace, people whom I know I can count on and go to for help. Not only that, I also have a very good team, with whom I can work together very well, to help bring the programme to greater heights for the benefit of the patients.
More often than not, friends are friends, colleagues are colleagues. How often can one find a place where their colleagues can also be their friends? I guess I am lucky to have found one.
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