Anna King – A Reflection

In advance of the inaugural Anna King Annual AOTI Lecture on 16th April, we are delighted to publish a reflection from Anna King in which she recalls her career, the establishment of AOTI and the School of Occupational Therapy, Trinity College Dublin.

I am extremely honoured that my name has been given to this important lecture and to be associated with Ann Beckett, who was a friend and colleague, and Eva Duggan, both of whom have AOTI awards named after them. Needless to say, I’m delighted that Clodagh Nolan, another friend and colleague, is giving the inaugural lecture.

I started my Occupational Therapy career in psychiatry in 1956 in the St John of God Hospital, Stillorgan. I remained with the Brothers, apart from a year spent in the Maudsley Hospital in London, until 1965, when I left to take care of elderly parents.

I was privileged to start my career with a handful of therapists, including Ann Beckett and Sr Eugene, who were practising in Ireland, and to finish my career as Director of the School of Occupational Therapy as it moved into the Faculty of Health Sciences, Trinity College Dublin (TCD).

As you may know, Joy Rook came from Liverpool in 1963 to establish the new Occupational Therapy School under the National Organisation of Rehabilitation (NOR), later to become the National Rehabilitation Board (NRB), from whom we always got 100 per cent support. In the early years of St Joseph’s College of Occupational Therapy, nurses from several large mental health hospitals around Ireland enrolled to become qualified Occupational Therapists. These nurses were invaluable in offering student placements in later years. At this time, many of the students had to go to hospitals in Northern Ireland and the UK for their clinical experience.

The opening of St Joseph’s College was followed in December 1965 by the establishment of the Association of Occupational Therapists (AOTI), hence the 60-year anniversary. I was delighted to be appointed as the first Chairperson.

Joy asked me to come and talk to the early students about my work in the St John of God Hospital. I was quite nervous but halfway through my talk I realised I was enjoying it, and I never lost that pleasure in teaching. That was my introduction to St Joseph’s College. Over the years, with generous support from Joy, I gradually increased my hours until I was full-time.

I was privileged to work with Directors that I considered friends, first Joy Rook, then Doreen Fleming, followed by Chris Meyers and finally Dr Mary Young, who to give her her due recognition, understood the internal power dynamics of a university. She gave me one piece of advice: “Have a written record of decisions made at a meeting.” This proved invaluable in later years.

During these years, I took part in various parts of the curriculum, including arranging clinical placements for the students. Many of you might remember Katriona O’Keeffe and me pleading with you just to fit in one more student. Many of these visits involved me driving to different parts of Ireland and home on the same day. This was before the nice motorways we have now, but this also gave me an excuse to enjoy visiting various hospitals/clinics at that time. I have to thank all of you clinicians who took our students under your wings, teaching and supporting them. Without this help St Joseph’s College would have never got off the ground.

I must acknowledge two people who kept the wheels of St Joseph’s College working, in the early days, Sheila Cleary, and later the late Patricia Whittle, whom many of you knew. Sheila had the unenviable job of arranging the interviews that took place in the summer for all the prospective students. These interviews were later abandoned, with no ill effects. Patricia kept together and compiled all the theory marks, which became more involved as subjects were supervised by the university.

Through time, the British Association of Occupational Therapy (BAOT) were permitting schools to set and examine their own programmes in anatomy/physiology and psychology. These programmes were overseen by external examiners who attended the schools for a couple of days, reviewing scripts and attending examiners’ meetings, and because of these changes, I had the pleasure of going to Belfast and Exeter several times and Cardiff once. We also sent a representative to tutors’ meetings, which were usually held in London.

During Doreen Fleming’s time we were preparing together, with BAOT approval, to establish our own Irish Occupational Therapy Diploma. We already had permission to oversee Anatomy/Physiology and Psychology exams. Preparing the syllabus entailed many evenings under the direction of Prof John Heywood from TCD drawing out the curriculum. These hours did not go to waste as they were the foundation of the BSc (Hons) in Occupational Therapy in TCD.

Around this time, a programme was also developed for diploma holders to undertake an MSc in Occupational Therapy by doing research or a taught course.

As part of the move into the Faculty of Health Sciences, we were required to obtain a higher degree. This meant that Siobhan McCobb, Geraldine O’Neill and Clodagh Nolan had to undertake research while continuing teaching at the School. I was privileged because NRB gave me time out and support to undertake a taught programme for MEd in TCD. If Joy Rook had not encouraged and supported me to undertake the BAOT teachers’ diploma in my early years while working part-time, I would not have been accepted to undertake the MEd course.

In later years, when we were part of the Faculty of Health Sciences, I was invited to be an external examiner for the school in Zimbabwe; it was quite an experience! I was there for two weeks as the only external examiner, but there was also just one examiner for physiotherapy. It was a time of difficult politics. I found I had to check on all subjects, even things I had no knowledge of. A pile of scripts would arrive the night before an examiners’ meeting! Also, many of the local patients only spoke Shona, their native language. I survived, thanks to Joan Norman, who previously had been one of our external examiners and was now a member of staff of the Zimbabwe course.

Finally, I must acknowledge all the help and support the School and I received from all the staff and the visiting lecturers, especially those from the Faculty of Health Sciences, TCD. They helped ease our way into the university.

P.S. Please remember that it has been more than 25 years since I retired and my memory may not be completely accurate.

With my very best wishes for the future of the profession,

Anna King

Tickets for the Launch of the Anna King Annual AOTI Lecture can be booked via the events section of the AOTI website or by following the link here.