Ten Years of #OTalk

#OTalk is a weekly Twitter chat that has been running for ten years, designed to enable discussion about occupational therapy and the broader academic discipline of occupational science. Run by volunteers, the #OTalk Twitter chats take place on Tuesday evenings between 8pm-9pm (UK time) and are suggested and facilitated by members of the #OTalk community (for example occupational therapists, students and researchers). Each host produces a blog post to introduce their topic and then leads the chat by asking a number of questions to start the discussion. To follow and engage in the discussion, search and use the hashtag #OTalk on Twitter.

We caught up with Kirstie Hughes from the OT team to find out a little bit more about the history of #OTalk and what the future holds.

How did #OTalk begin?

The idea of #OTalk, or #OccChat as it was first conceived in 2011, had intended to be a way to bring occupational therapists together. Back then Twitter was still a new platform, but the founding team saw its potential for global connection, with this in mind the first #OTalk was held on 25 October 2011, the week of World OT Day. Many said it would never take off, or didn’t understand why the team felt there was such a pressing need to connect, but the team carried on. Week after week they showed up, hosted and chatted, and over the weeks more participants joined and the word spread. In our ten years we have gone from a single digit of followers to a thriving community of over 22k occupational therapists, students and practitioners.

How has #OTalk evolved over the years?

By 2013 our following had grown and the community had started to find its voice and were taking hold of some of the topics we had been discussing and really running with them, even asking for new things. In response to this we introduced a Journal (Media) Club to allow a space to review and discuss academic journals and other media within the community. This was also the same year #OTalk was mentioned in the Francis Report, as a way to promote professionalism. From here we started to grow the team with our student intern role and get more active within the profession, presenting at conferences and events. 2016 was the busiest so far for the team. We had an editorial published in the British Journal of Occupational Therapy, received a shout out from Julia Scott in the RCOT Annual Conference Plenary Speech, as well as a mention in that years Elizabeth Casson Lecture from Wendy Bryant. This was the year we also launched #OTalk Research which saw a subset of

practitioners join the team to host a research-themed chat once a month. In 2017 we were in full swing with a larger core team, and a packed chat calendar, but no matter how busy the team became, both with #OTalk and our day jobs, we always worked hard to support our community to engage in CPD, to utilise social media safely and to reap the many benefits of engaging in CPD online. We published an article on the outcome of the #OTalk Intern Project and helped RCOT to gather views for their upcoming Career Development Framework. We also piloted our first #OTalkOnTour pre conference dinner offering solo travellers a chance to meet people prior to the conference.

Did you ever anticipate how popular it would become?

We pride ourselves and #OTalk on listening to our community and taking our cues from them and the things affecting them and the wider profession. In the early days they suggested topics and the team would run the chats, but the community wanted to be more involved. This led to chats being hosted by those who suggested the topic, which made sense as these were the people with knowledge and experience. We added the Research Team as the profession became more active within research, we now tackle topics that are not only clinical areas, but on politics and process. We’ve grown into a platform for practitioners to seek support, ideas and influence and because of this, organisations now reach out to us as a way to garner views or feedback which is amazing. It’s not something we expected, for example we recently supported RCOT’s new CEO Steve Ford to discuss the results of his “Talk to Steve” project and their plans for new strategic intentions. Each of the team have their own areas of interest and we all have what we refer to as “back up chats”, these are topics that we use to step in if ever a host cancels or we have a week without a volunteer, but actually these chats very rarely get used now. Each year our community continues to grow and bring new topics and areas for discussion, so much so we are booking chats months in advance which is something we could never have imagined.

What are the benefits for OTs participating in an #OTalk chat?

Within our community we have a wealth of knowledge and experience and #OTalk is a great way to tap into that. You can learn more about an area of practice you weren’t aware of or may be interested in pursuing, you can share your own knowledge on topics and give feedback on new policy or events that impact our profession. Twitter chats as a whole provide valuable opportunities for CPD and a chance to engage with your profession, colleagues and regulatory bodies. They have become a ‘go to’ tool for social learning and sharing and can help you keep up to date with all the goings on within the profession. Hashtags are a great way to follow events or campaigns. With busy schedules and lack of resources it can be difficult to attend all the courses and conferences we would like to, however Twitter can help to keep us in the loop! Just like the #OTalk hashtag, many events or organisations have their own as a way to curate information. For example, if you weren’t able to make it to RCOT’s annual conference you can still share in some of the learning on offer through the use of #RCOT2021. You can also check out #OTsForEquity #ValueofOT #LivenotExist #OTWeek2021 and #Twitter4CPD and find lots of valuable news, information and resources.

We pride ourselves and #OTalk on listening to our community and taking our cues from them

Do you have any stand out moments over #OTalk’s ten years?

Being acknowledged within the Francis Report was a big moment for #OTalk and helped to back up a lot of what the team was saying about a need for discussion and debate and we took this further with the BJOT editorial. What always stands out to us is the willingness of our profession to tackle difficult and challenging topics. We get messages asking “is this too weird for a chat?” or “I know it’s a bit of a hot topic but…” and our answer is always “we can totally do this”. We love working with hosts to create chats that stimulate a respectful and professional debate, nothing is too weird for us!

What does the future hold for #OTalk?

We have spoken about completing research to look at the impact #OTalk has had over the years and contributing to the evidence base of social media for CPD. However, right now the team are looking forward to getting back to a time where we can connect with our community in person as this has been when ideas have sparked and we’ve been able to put faces to the social media names. Whatever the future holds we know the community will support us, challenge us and inspire us, and we are continually grateful for that.

Who is behind the #OTalk Team?

The current Team is Helen Rushton @Helen_OTUK,

Kelly Murray @OTontheTracks, Rachel Booth-

Gardiner @OT_Rach, Kirstie Hughes @Kirstie_OT,

Carolina Cordero @Colourful_OT and Ruth Hawley @Ruth_Hawley. We are also joined by Dr Jenny

Preston @preston_jenny and Dr Nikki Daniels @NikkiDanielsOT who are our Research Team. We are currently looking for new team members, applications and more information can be found on our website OTalk.co.uk. Twitter: @OTalk_ Instagram: OTalk_