Occupational Therapist – Kaiwhakaora Ngangahau
“My why is to give back to my community and give support through a Māori health care lens to benefit our people. Through my knowledge, identity and skill background, I hope to better educate our people on the importance of receiving health care and how important it is to look after our wairua.”
– Grace Harris, Occupational Therapist
About the Career
Occupational Therapists assess and treat people who need to relearn to perform their activities following illness or injury. They help people to regain lost functions, develop their abilities and social skills, and maintain and promote independence. They people to be able to return to their work and activities following accidents and injuries.
Personal qualities you need
- Great communicators with people from diverse cultural backgrounds
- Supportive, approachable, positive and encouraging
- Good at analysing and problem solving
- Good at writing reports
- Self-motivated, energetic and enthusiastic
Career Pathway
To become an occupational therapist you need to complete one of the following:
- Bachelor of Health Science (Occupational Therapy) at Auckand University of Technology (AUT)
- Bachelor of Occupational Therapy at Otago Polytechnic or Waikato Institute of Technology (Wintec).
- Bachelor of Health Science (Occupational Therapy) at Auckand University of Technology (AUT)
Find out more about a career in Occupational Therapy here: https://www.careers.govt.nz/jobs-database/health-and-community/health/occupational-therapist/
Other Careers in Health Therapy
Health therapy workers give therapy to treat people with different health problems. They can specialise in different areas like ears (hearing), feet, speech, how the body moves and also helping people get back into work after a health problem or an accident.
Other rewarding roles in health therapy include:
Audiologist
Specialises in hearing.
Find out more: https://www.careers.govt.nz/jobs-database/health-and-community/health/audiologistaudiometrist/
Physiotherapist
Helps people who have a movement problem caused by an injury or disease become independent.
Find out more: https://www.careers.govt.nz/jobs-database/health-and-community/health/physiotherapist/
Speech Language Therapist
Helps children and adults who have a communication or swallowing disability such as speech, language, thinking, voice or fluency problems.
Find out more: https://www.careers.govt.nz/jobs-database/health-and-community/health/speech-language-therapist/
Podiatrist
Treats and prevent foot and lower limb problems such as sports injuries or nail and skin surgery.
Find out more: https://www.careers.govt.nz/jobs-database/health-and-community/health/podiatrist/
Our Whānau Career Story
Grace Harris, Occupational Therapist
Where do I work and what do I do?
I am currently working for Te Whatu Ora-Taranaki at Hawera hospital in a rotational position – this means I get 6-months exposure to different clinical settings across the two hospitals.
My current role as an Occupational Therapist (OT) is spent working in the medical/rehab ward in the morning and in the community in the afternoon. On the hospital ward my role as an OT is to work with people who aren’t functioning as they normally would physically, due to injury or illness. The aim is to use their strengths and concerns to promote, restore and enable them to participate independently again within their daily occupations.
In the community setting my role is to visit people with health concerns and or a disability within their home environment to address their safety needs and support them to maintain their independence.
Treatment options are often provided in the form of education, modifications to their housing/ living environment and appropriate equipment.
What was my career pathway to get where I am / and what led me to this?
Through schooling, it was always my aspiration to work towards becoming a teacher, I completed my level three and four early childhood educations via gateway class and went on develop an interest in working with children who have learning disabilities or who require extra support.
Post completing this, my interest changed, and I discovered teaching and children was no longer my passion – I had a desire to work with people however unsure of the career and options. Through meeting with my careers counsellor and the support of Why Ora, I found occupational therapy and immediately knew this was where I wanted to go.
Why Ora supported me through my studies across the three years, including applications to scholarships and also now within my working career as a qualified OT. I have such a passion to give back to my community as I have received so much support through my studies over the last few years that I wanted to return to Taranaki to give back to my people.
“My why” for doing this job and making a difference for Māori
As a female who identifies as Māori and working within the health discipline, it is clear there are disproportions between numbers of Māori and non-Māori working in health, let alone female Māori working in health.
Through the eyes of Māori, the health system can also be perceived with a negative viewpoint.
My why is to give back to my community and give support through a Māori health care lens to benefit our people. Through my knowledge, identity and skill background, I hope to better educate our people on the importance of receiving health care and how important it is to look after our wairua.
It is a common occurrence that medical information is not presented or explained in a way we understand it, resulting in poor adherence to health recommendations and poor health outcomes.
I hope through my work, I can be that familiar face, listener and translator of medical jargon into our own way of understanding.
