Ms Karen Arblaster

Karen is a lecturer in occupational therapy with a keen interest in mental health, occupational therapy theory and clinical practice, and workforce issues.  She began her career as an occupational therapist in 1987, working in a variety of community and hospital mental health positions.  While working in these positions Karen focused on establishing high quality student fieldwork education programs. 

Karen has worked as a manager of mental health and general hospital services, as well as Head of Discipline of Occupational Therapy for the [then] Sydney West Area Health Service, in a role encompassing a population of 1.1 million people, and OT services across 9 hospitals and associated community and mental health services.  In all of these positions Karen focused on putting research evidence into practice and workforce development, specifically recruitment and retention issues and the new graduate experience.  Additionally, Karen has been a manager of large assistive technology services for people with disabilities in Western Sydney, becoming well acquainted with the systemic challenges faced in daily life by people living with a disability. 

Between 1991 and 2011, Karen has taught in the University of Sydney Occupational Therapy programs, at undergraduate and masters levels, on both a part time casual and full time basis. 

Past research activities include:

• a qualitative study exploring occupational therapists' professional reasoning in selecting meaningful occupations for consumers in a mental health rehabilitation setting
• an exploration of the emerging occupational therapy role in child and adolescent mental health settings in Australia

Current research interests include:

• improving the readiness of occupational therapy graduates to support mental health consumers in their recovery journey through consumer participation in their mental health education
• exploring the impact on occupational participation of various mental health disorders

Karen is currently representing Occupational Therapy Australia on the National Mental Health Workforce Capabilities Technical Working Group (2013).  This group is working to develop a set of capabilities all members of the mental health workforce will bring to their work.  This will support the revised National Mental Health Practice Standards, developed as part of the National Mental Health Strategy.

This information has been contributed by Ms Arblaster.