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Yesterday, I attended a memorial service for a very dear friend of mine and the comments opened with ‘who would have thought 12 months ago we would be meeting here today for this event?’ Well who w...

Background World Federation of Occupational Therapists (WFOT) member organisations comprise 77 national occupational therapy organisations across the world. Each national organisation interacts with its members and the public using diverse methods. Increasingly, national organisations are broadening their communication methods. Objective The objective of this study was to examine if and how occupational therapy organisations are using social media for communication, and if so, the types of concerns or barriers they experience and what role they anticipate social media might play in the near future. Methods An online survey was developed; 57 of 77 WFOT member organisations responded. Findings This study identified that WFOT national organisations are using social media, to varying degrees, with or without an individual formally assigned to manage social media. Respondents reported that they used social media to: communicate with members, promote the organisation and promote the profession. Commonly expressed needs included assistance with guidelines for ethical social media use, developing technical expertise, and recognition of limits of time and competing priorities. Recommendations arising from this research are at the global, national, local and individual levels and incorporate active dissemination and pure diffusion approaches. Taking steps to increase the use of social media could indirectly impact occupational therapy practice through enhancing organisations’ abilities to support practitioners to enhance their practice. Limitations and recommendations for further research Although 57% of WFOT member organisations returned usable responses, there may be some additional perspectives that were not captured. It would be helpful to contact non-responding organisations to explore their social media use and plans. Further research could examine how future initiatives put in place by WFOT impact social media use by member organisations.

WFOT Council Meeting Focus Day in 2006 focused on long term plans which aim at ensuring that WFOT continues to meet the needs of the member associations and the occupational therapists they represent. Council members reviewed the existing WFOT Strategic Plan, vision and priorities and discussed them in relation to a range of key strategic documents. Results of discussions were collated and compared against the WFOT Strategic Plan 2000–2006. Organizational objectives and priorities within the strategic plan were updated as an outcome of this Focus Day.

WFOT responded immediately and proactively to the major disaster that occurred in the Indian Ocean region on December 26, 2004. This report notes the actions that WFOT have taken already and recommendations for future actions for occupational therapists locally and internationally for improved preparedness for emergency response. As noted in the Report of the WFOT Response to the Tsunami (www.wfot.org/document_centre/), for the future, priority occupational therapy emergency response needs are for orientation, preparation and understanding of coordination requirements and skills in post traumatic stress management and in particular through meaningful and productive occupation and sustainable livelihood

Over 2,000 Occupational Therapists came together in Sydney as part of a celebration of occupational therapy and to be part of that vision for the future. The organising committee — Team Oz — worked tirelessly with the Meeting Planners to make this Congress — WFOT’s premier educational event — a huge success. The overwhelming feeling from the Congress was one of leaving behind our self doubts and preoccupation with our efficacy (or lack of it) and striding forward as highly valued and powerful contributors within the health arena. The clear challenge was that occupational therapists need to take control of the profession and its ongoing development toward an exciting future and most importantly — the clear response was that they are ready and willing to do just that.

This article gives the philosophy behind the formation of the Education Team in a geriatric service and lists its specific objectives. The latter include the development and evaluation of educational programmes, the establishment of an information centre, clinical teaching, the orientation of new staff and in-service training, an advisory service, and the evaluation of equipment. The elderly population in this region is already higher than the national average and the team promotes positive attitudes in their care. The authors consider that the role and workload of the team will' continue to expand in the foreseeable future.