Today is World Occupational Therapy Day. Occupational Therapy is a wide ranging discipline that can positively affect people’s lives in a huge number of ways – there is no single way to practice occupational therapy! It is important to highlight the different ways Occupational Therapists bring their expertise and knowledge to a huge variety of situations.
This is why, to celebrate World OT Day, we want to highlight just some of the many Occupational Therapists we have worked with. Every one has contributed something vital to Jenx, but also to the people they help. We feel our international community of Occupational Therapists epitomises this year’s World OT Day theme – ‘Unity Through Community’. Read more below!
Lee Ann Hoffman
Lee Ann Hoffman is an extremely experienced OT who has worked with Jenx by providing clinical expertise through her brilliant blogs and (need to ask).
Lee Ann is based in Dallas, Texas, and has more than 20 years of experience as an OT. She has worked internationally and in a variety of healthcare settings and systems throughout her career. She is invested in contributing to the field of assistive technology and complex rehabilitation technologies and holds certifications as an assistive technology professional (ATP) and seating and mobility specialist (SMS) through the Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology Society of North America (RESNA).
Lee Ann volunteers her time as co-vice chair for the RESNA 24-7 posture care management (PCM) special interest group and is part of the core team for the RESNA position paper for 24-hour PCM. She has presented and published internationally about 24-hour Posture Care Management. Lee Ann teaches entry-level occupational therapy doctoral students assistive technology at a Health Sciences University (USA) and is a lifelong learner, having obtained a Bachelor of Occupational Therapy (Republic of South Africa), Master of Science in posture management (United Kingdom), post-professional Doctor of Occupational Therapy (USA) and is currently undertaking a second doctorate degree in education.
Joanna Santiago
Joanna Santiago is a member of Medifab, our distributor of Jenx products in Australia and New Zealand. She has had a truly international experience of occupational therapy, and now utilises her knowledge and expertise to provide renowned clinical teaching to others.
She completed her training in Occupational Therapy in Portugal in 2004. She is passionate about seating and positioning and understands how comprehensive postural management can have a strong influence on functionality, health, and the ability to lead a positive lifestyle.
Over the years, Joana has gained extensive clinical experience throughout her career, working with suppliers of medical equipment as a Seating and Positioning Consultant among large hospitals and rehab centres in Europe and the United Arab Emirates. These experiences enabled her to work closely with a diverse range of clients from paediatrics to those affected with neurological and traumatic injuries, assessing and supplying a wide range of Assistive Technology including aids for daily living, mobility, complex seating and positioning equipment. With a hands-on and flexible approach, Joana takes pride in her ability to reach good clinical outcomes by considering the individual, cultural and social needs of those she works with.
In the past 15 years, Joana has worked within the industry in 5 different countries around the world and is now based in Sydney, Australia as a Clinical Educator for Medifab, where she is able to have a positive influence on the development and supply of their extensive range of products. Her passion, pride in her work, and energy, make her one of the most renowned educators in Australasia and beyond. A vibrant personality and absorbing method of teaching allows her to deliver engaging training.
Joana has presented internationally, including at the International Seating Symposium, European Seating Symposium, Oceania Seating Symposium, Asia-Pacific OT Congress, Posture and Mobility Group (PMG) Conference, and Canadian Seating and Mobility Conference and throughout Australia at in-services to seating clinics, ATSA Independent Living Expo, Assistive Technology Conference of Queensland (ATQ), and Australian Assistive Technology Conference (ARATA).
Reuben Serrano
Reuben Serrano is the head of our Spanish distributor Rehagirona’s Training and Knowledge Department, as well as being their Clinical Advisor.
After gaining his degree in occupational therapy at the University of Rey Juan Carlos, he followed his passion for learning into further university level
training in sports science at the Polytechnic University of Madrid. Here’s what he has to say about his dedication to lifelong learning!
“I consider myself a person in continuous learning, with concerns to expand knowledge on various areas to obtain greater personal and work development for the people and the company. My passion about new technologies and assistive products has allowed me to work and learn in various professional areas such as job adaptation, sensory stimulation rooms, augmentative communication, computer access, teaching, team leadership and profit and loss account, and especially in seating and positioning of people with disabilities. The use of social and commercial skills have always helped me to foster a good atmosphere within the work team and with customers, in addition to maintaining the added value of our company, our products and services. Always receptive to listen and learn about new projects.”
Louise Johnston
Louise Johnston works at Jiraffe as a Product Advisor for Northern Ireland. Her experience as an Occupational Therapist allows to bring her expertise to her role, where she is passionate about helping children who benefit from Jenx products. Hear what she has to say about her experience as an OT below!
“I am from Co. Fermanagh in Northern Ireland. I moved to Belfast nearly two years ago and commenced work with Jiraffe, after 10 years of working as an OT in London. I am currently Jiraffe’s Product Advisor for Ireland, supporting children and families across the whole country.
I worked in paediatrics in my early days as an OT and loved it, but decided to specialise in adults towards the latter part of my OT career.
I always knew I wanted to work in caring role in some form but didn’t quite know exactly what shape that would be. I did a few healthcare workshops (OT, PT, SLT and Nursing) in my local hospital. OT really stuck out for me – I loved how varied the role could be and there could be an option to work in many different settings.
I loved working with the children – I love that you get to be as silly as you like, and nobody bats an eyelid. When the job with Jiraffe came up, I jumped at the chance to go back to working with children, especially those children with additional and complex needs.
Knowing that the products we provide can really make a difference to their quality of life was important to me!”
This is by no means an exhaustive list of all the excellent Occupational Therapists who have worked with Jenx! We are so proud to work with an international network of Occupational Therapists who all bring something unique to their practice.
Interested in learning more about occupational therapy? Learn about occupational therapy and sleep here!
