F E AT U R E
The history of a growing profession Angela Berndt, Acting Dean of Allied Health Programs, Occupational Therapy Program Director, UniSA
I
t was 1971. Australian rock band Daddy Cool’s classic song Eagle Rock was topping the charts when the first cohort of students signed up for an inaugural degree at the South Australian Institute of Technology (SAIT, now the University of South Australia, UniSA). This year marks 50 years since the Occupational Therapy Program began. With the theme of this edition being “This is OT”, we thought it a golden opportunity to share some of our history, values and contributions. The Occupational Therapy Program’s story reflects common themes in our profession: willpower, advocacy and lobbying. Before it started, a small group of unflagging women – led by Cecilie Bearup (OAM) – created the South Australian Occupational Therapy Association in 1963, and succeeded in having the program approved and created. It secured registration status for the profession in 1974. We owe them such a debt of gratitude. The program started at the Parkside Mental Hospital (later Glenside Hospital), a large and busy psychiatric hospital where Ms Bearup began work in 1963 upon her arrival from England where she trained at the London School of Occupational Therapy (State Library South Australia, collections. slsa.sa.gov.au). This alliance may explain some of the early values of the program, as occupational therapists were closely connected to the deinstitutionalisation processes of later years. For example, one of the long-standing academic awards, the Marjorie Black Prize, honors students who gain the highest grade point average 20 otaus.com.au
First graduating class of 1973.
in courses with psychosocial components. Although not an occupational therapist herself, Marjorie Black created Marjorie Black House to offer security and social inclusion to people with long-term mental-health issues who were exiting psychiatric hospitals. Fast forwarding a little in our timeline, the program re-settled in the Bonython Jubilee Building of SAIT/UniSA. Decades of students have studied in this building, which was formerly the School of Mines
Ann Wilcock
Cecilie Bearup
(and therefore has very few female facilities – an irony lost on no one). In the late 1970s and through to the early 1990s, however, the benefits of being in that building were the industrial-level workshops used for wood or cane work. Many hours of detailed activity analysis, making and adaptation practice occurred in those basement spaces. We also had the joy of being near the Botanic Gardens where, due to Ms Bearup’s foresight, we undertook gardening therapy and horticulture classes on-site.
Susan Gilbert Hunt
