WFOT Sydney 2006Ann Carnduff and Ulla Runge Snapshots from lives with polio contrasted with shifts in paradigms of Occupational Therapy Appearance Disappearance Reappearance

WFOT Sydney 2006Ann Carnduff and Ulla Runge Introduction Prologue – project design Appearance – stories about having polio in the 40s and 50s and how we discovered occupational therapy – 20 years with disability – the main focus of today Disappearance – stories about being an occupational therapist – 30 years ignoring disability Reappearance – stories about having post polio syndrome – 10 years as ageing occupational therapists acknowledging disability Epilogue

WFOT Sydney 2006Ann Carnduff and Ulla Runge We found significant coincidences – we were both: born in the early 1940s contracted polio before the age of five had early contact with occupational therapy undertook occupational therapy education in 1960s did not acknowledge disability for a long period worked intensively as occupational therapy educators took early retirement because of post polio syndrome Prologue Before the Project Started

WFOT Sydney 2006Ann Carnduff and Ulla Runge Prologue Before the Project Started Differences in personal circumstances One was born in Egypt, but lived and worked in Scotland One was born, lived and worked in Denmark

WFOT Sydney 2006Ann Carnduff and Ulla Runge Prologue Purpose To provide some ideas about How life can be lived to the full, even if a person has limited physical resources How and why bodily limitations and symptoms may be denied/ignored How individual life is interwoven with time and place

WFOT Sydney 2006Ann Carnduff and Ulla Runge Prologue Project Design Development and analysis of both autobiographies/life-stories to create a common narrative touching on where our lives with chronic disease are contrasted with shifts in paradigms of occupational therapy

WFOT Sydney 2006Ann Carnduff and Ulla Runge Prologue Time Table The project started in 2005 and will be completed in What we present here are our interim results

WFOT Sydney 2006Ann Carnduff and Ulla Runge Prologue Key Points Ulla Born 1941, polio 1943, occupational therapist 1967, teacher 1971, manager 1981, and retired Ann Born 1944, polio 1948, occupational therapist 1965, teacher 1985, manager 1990, and retired 2001

WFOT Sydney 2006Ann Carnduff and Ulla Runge Appearance 40s and 50s Our every day lives were interrupted by long stays in hospitals and by treatment with consequences for our relatives learning processes future careers

WFOT Sydney 2006Ann Carnduff and Ulla Runge Appearance 40s and 50s The opening remark from each of our occupational therapists was: ‘What do you want and need to do?’

WFOT Sydney 2006Ann Carnduff and Ulla Runge Appearance 40s and 50s ‘Doing’ and ‘creativity’ were key words for us and our occupational therapists

WFOT Sydney 2006Ann Carnduff and Ulla Runge Appearance 40s and 50s 1. The impact of 'doing' combined with 'creativity' on us as patients? The process prevented us from boredom dependency loneliness/isolation

WFOT Sydney 2006Ann Carnduff and Ulla Runge Appearance 40s and 50s 2. The impact of ‘doing’ in combination with ‘creativity’ on us as patients? The process enabled us to structure a daily rhythm have control have relationships with people

WFOT Sydney 2006Ann Carnduff and Ulla Runge Appearance 40s and 50s At this time craftwork was the main medium in OT intervention 'We made soft toys, leatherwork and baskets for satisfaction, challenge, presents, selling and fun'

WFOT Sydney 2006Ann Carnduff and Ulla Runge Appearance 40s and 50s Doing, creativity and occupational therapy – for us it meant rescue doing creativity occupational therapy rescue

WFOT Sydney 2006Ann Carnduff and Ulla Runge Disappearance 60s, 70s, 80s We both became occupational therapists in the 60s and have lived our lives with husbands, children and jobs, and without many functional limitations for several decades. We almost forgot about our disease and old diagnosis. Professionally we both experienced disquiet with medically influenced OT paradigms

WFOT Sydney 2006Ann Carnduff and Ulla Runge Reappearance 90s Both became occupational therapy educators Both embraced a variety of different professional roles over many years. For both, problems with functional limitations, pain and fatigue difficulties became visible: Neither could hide our problems from ourselves Both were labelled with the diagnosis post polio syndrome 50 years after the original diagnosis of polio We again became users of the health care system

WFOT Sydney 2006Ann Carnduff and Ulla Runge Epilogue Shared discoveries: no sparing of pain to ignore our disability and deny our limitations over many years – a neglect syndrome the 'doing aspect' in occupational therapy combined with ‘creativity’ has been important for us shifts of paradigms in the western world are universal, but displaced in time depending on the context our journey during this exploration has been a very difficult, sometimes painful, engaging, personal, and intellectual process

WFOT Sydney 2006Ann Carnduff and Ulla Runge Epilogue Thank you for your attention – Further contact Ann Carnduff, Scotland Mail: Ulla Runge, Denmark Mail: