An Occupational Perspective of Health

Ann A. Wilcock (née Ellison), PhD, BAppScOT, GradDipPH, FCOT, was born in the United Kingdom and was brought up in the Lake District. She graduated as an occupational therapist from the Derby School in 1961. She learned early of the need to think about the purpose of the profession because, in order to obtain some financial assistance for her training, at 16 years of age, she had to convince the Westmorland Education Authority of the merits of the profession, and the reason they should support her tertiary education in this field. No occupational therapists were employed in Westmorland at that time. After graduating, Ann worked at Black Notley Hospital and Farnham Park Rehabilitation Centre before going to live in Australia in 1964. There, she worked in large general hospitals in a variety of fields, including mental health, orthopedics, geriatric medicine, and neurology. After many years as a practitioner, she moved into the academic sphere eventually becoming Head of the School of Occupational Therapy at the University of South Australia in 1987. Her formal academic career culminated in her appointment to establish a new and innovative program as Professor of Occupational Science and Therapy at Deakin University. Other appointments have included Visiting Professor at Brunel University, London; Adjunct Professor at Dalhousie University, Canada, and Charles Sturt University, Australia; and Doctoral Supervisor at Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand. Ann's research interests have spanned active aging; children's occupational potential; physiological influences on occupational performance; occupational balance; well-being; the effect of neurological disorder on the human need for occupation; population health; and the relationship between occupation, health, illness, occupational therapy, and public health. The highlight of her career has been in encouraging the development of occupational science as an international and interdisciplinary force. As well as introducing occupational science to Australasia, she founded the Journal of Occupational Science in 1993, convened the first Australasian Occupational Science Symposium, and was elected as the Inaugural President of the International Society of Occupational Scientists (ISOS). Her personal direction within the science is exploration of the relationship between people's occupational natures and health. This was firmly established as Ann undertook graduate studies in public health, and was the subject of her PhD thesis. She is the author of 5 books; the first 2 are about stroke--Help Yourselves: A Handbook for Hemiplegics and Their Families in 1966 followed by Occupational Therapy Approaches to Stroke in 1986. The most recent Occupation for Health: A Journey from Self-Health to Prescription (2001) and the second volume, A Journey from Prescription to Self-Health (2002), were written when Ann was the commissioned historian for the British College and Association of Occupational Therapists. The first edition of this text, An Occupational Perspective of Health, was published by SLACK Incorporated in 1998. As well as numerous chapters and articles, Ann has delivered keynote addresses at the World Federation of Occupational Therapists Congress in Montreal in 1998, and at other conferences in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, United Kingdom, Sweden, Portugal, Japan, Thailand, Hong Kong, and the United States. She is the recipient of a range of prestigious awards, internationally.