About this session:
We want to support our members to enable safe and inclusive working environments, free from discrimination, promoting collaboration and respect.
This session is the start of a conversation to explore the meaning of allyship during global conflicts. While some AHPs will be sharing their experiences, the session is more about a call for compassion. It’s about finding the common thread that unites us through compassion, empathy and humanity.
We want to create a safe space for authentic and meaningful conversations. Attendees will be asked to be mindful, kind and show compassion and empathy to those having a difficult time and not to use the platform to make political, religious, or inflammatory statements.
As a safe and trusted space, we also want everyone to be able to share in the session, without concern that they’ll be identified and attributed to information afterwards. This means we won’t be recording the event and will ask participants to follow this guideline, as set out in Chatham House Rules.
We encourage all AHPs to attend, this isn’t just for occupational therapists.
Facilitators:
Dr Anita Atwal
Dr Anita Atwal is an occupational therapist and Allied Health Professional who specialises in interdisciplinary research that is fair and inclusive. Anita’s work is strongly service user, community focused and collaborative. Anita is currently seconded for 2 days a week to Health and Care Research Wales to develop a research action plan for Nurses, Midwives, and Allied Health Professionals (AHP). In 2021 she was nominated by her peers to deliver the prestigious Elizabeth Casson Memorial Lecture.
No Barriers to Brilliance: Social and Creative Courage to innovate and disrupt Occupational therapy practice. Anita has held many senior volunteering roles at the Royal College of Occupational Therapists (RCOT) including member of the Research and Development Committee and Professional Practice Board. She is currently a RCOT/BAOT Council member for Research and Development.
Dr. Gita Ramdharry, Consultant Allied Health Professional in Neuromuscular Diseases, National Hospital for Neurology & Neurosurgery, UCLH
Gita is a physiotherapist working as a Clinical Academic at UCLH NHS Trust in the area of neuromuscular diseases. She is active in the area of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) and is the Chair of the EDI committee for the Department of Neuromuscular Diseases at UCL Institute of Neurology, lead for the Institute of Neurology Disability Awareness Group. Gita is a member of the Diversity Committee for the international Inherited Neuropathy consortium and is also leading work to develop recruitment strategies to increase diversity in participant recruitment in the Department of Neuromuscular Diseases, UCL. She is part of a team that have been exploring the experiences of physiotherapists from Global Majority backgrounds in the workplace: 10.1136/leader-2023-000816
Meera Sharma, Radiographer and Freelance researcher
Meera works in dual clinical and academic settings. In her current roles, she caters for the duality in the needs of both the students and the professionals within the healthcare system which is very exciting as it allows for growth and application in both settings which are continuously evolving. She has many years of experience as a lecturer to develop as a leading educator, where she has had responsibilities with radiography/healthcare programme deliverables at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. She is a doctoral student, focusing on Lung Cancer patients and carer experiences with diagnosis (medical imaging) and treatment (radiotherapy) for African and Caribbean communities. Her additional research projects include AHP career decision making, FAIResearch, career progression opportunities workforce retention, career, upskilling workforce to meet service demands.
Contact: Events.ExhibitionsOfficer@rcot.co.uk if you have any questions about your booking
The event will be hosted under Chatham House Rule, participants are free to use the information received, but neither the identity nor the affiliation of the speaker(s), nor that of any other participant, may be revealed (Including on social media and or any other media)
First, we need to acknowledge and respect that people presenting and listening may be personally affected by global conflicts in the past and the present. The speakers and the audience are not to invalidate their feelings and experiences.
We wish to understand how the majority in the AHP professions unaffected in this way can be more aware of how others can feel isolated or fearful in the workplace. We want to encourage them to be mindful, kind, to show compassion and empathy to those having a difficult time. It is too easy to just ignore to avoid discomfort.
Speakers and the audience are not to use this platform to make political, religious, or inflammatory statements. We are not here to debate the right or wrong of a specific conflict. We are not here to change people’s minds.
We are here to find the common thread that unite us through compassion , empathy, and humanity."