As part of OT Week, we were delighted to catch up with Craig Brown, an Occupational Therapy student, who is with NRS Healthcare for his first placement.

Craig, who is almost halfway through his pre-registration two-year Masters degree, started his placement at our Head Office in Bardon in October and has talked to us about some of his thoughts during a typical day in placement.

6am: Wake up knowing I will make a positive difference by supporting people's occupational engagement in activities that hold meaning and purpose in their lives.

7am: Travel to my NRS training venue; on arrival I am introduced to a team of extremely special individuals working within an NRS Community Service Centre.

11am: By this time of the morning, I have had sufficient opportunity to critically reflect on why these individuals are so special. It is because each individual NRS team member contributes their unique portion of thread weaving - a distinctive pattern in the shape of supporting service-users to undertake independent activities of daily living.

1pm: Observed the genuine happiness of a service-user receiving equipment; for instance I wrote this statement in my reflective journal –

“…a walking frame, and a pressure relieving mattress, perhaps these two pieces of equipment could supply small foundation blocks on which an individual recently discharged from hospital could build towards occupations they need to do: washing, eating, sleeping, and ultimately leading to re-engagement in the socialising and hobbies they want to do….after all, everyone needs their own piece of thread to hold the fabric of their own occupational life story together!”

4.30pm: Travel home - whilst driving through the country lanes shrouded in darkness, I ponder upon a recurrent thought…occupational engagement, perhaps, may lay at the heart of everything we all need and want to do during the journey of our lives.