If you are following the development of our Yr 1 Thriving Not Surviving project you will know that we are asking all kinds of questions of you if you are an occupational therapist in your first year of practice. We want to understand your experiences of this first year and it’s impact on your wellbeing. If you have just discovered us this link will take you to an explanation of our project.
We started off three weeks ago with quite playful questions designed to get you thinking about quick fire responses and it worked. With the help of the Year 1 community we have created a Year 1 Playlist, a cloud full of words and all kinds of different rivers.
We have posted lots of provocations on Twitter and our following is growing all the time which is brilliant. We’ve also started posting images and questions on our instagram feed. We are conscious that these are public spaces where all the world can join in, and it has.
But we know that social media isn’t for everyone. What if the thing you want to share is not for global public consumption? After all it’s your experience, it’s personal and maybe it can’t be reduced to 250 characters or a picture.
A haven for your thoughts
With this in mind we have also created a quieter space in the form of a closed Facebook Group where a much more nuanced conversation can take place specifically for occupational therapists who are in their first year of practice. A space where people who have gone through a shared experience can come together and exchange thoughts. A discrete community, the Year 1 community.
But even that may be too public for something you want to share. Or maybe you ‘don’t do’ social media. If that’s the case, we have created an even quieter haven for you in the form of our email account and we’d love to hear from you. Everything you share with the project team via email is and will be kept private. So if, over the coming weeks, our questions evoke a desire to share something please don’t feel excluded if you don’t want to use social media. We’d love you to contact us via the haven we’ve created through our email account.
Here are the different ways in which you can be part of the Year 1 community:
- Email: year.one.ot@gmail.com
- Twitter: @1otyear
- Facebook: Thriving Not Surviving Year One OT
- Instagram: year1ot
We really hope you will connect with us one way or another.
This project is funded by the Elizabeth Casson Trust
Photo from Kristina Flour via Unsplash.