SAOT has been working with partners to support our OTs to excel professionally, have our voices heard and recognized at the national level as well as other regions of the world. Some of the representations are captured below, and we will continue our work to be the representative of the OT profession in Singapore.
WFOT is the global voice for occupational therapy and sets the standard for its practice. Ms Florence Cheong is the official representative of SAOT as a Member Organization and heads the delegation in WFOT. She is the primary liaison and first line of communication about WFOT’s activities to SAOT and WFOT individual members in Singapore.
APOTRG aims to promote international learning exchange, research collaboration among member countries and organize professional development activities. Mr Patrick Ker is the President for APOTRG and he also holds the position of 1st Alternate WFOT Delegate. He network with country members of the Asia Pacific Region in developing and advancing the standards of occupational therapy practice and education.
SAOT organizes SAOT-HOD meetings to connect with the leaders of the OT community. The last face to face meeting held in Aug 2019 had more than 100 attendees and the most recent meeting was held virtually in March 2021 where HOD also shared updates on clinical practice in their centres.
SAOT also engages in sessions with Ms Susan Niam, Chief Allied Health Officer (CAHO) to understand Ministry of Health’s (MOH) directions and how we can position ourselves to support the OT community.
SAOT president participated in May Day Rally 2019 and signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with NTUC Union Associates, to work in partnership to reskill and upskill workers to equip healthcare workers to be “Healthcare Workers 4.0”. SAOT will also be part of the Healthcare Services Employee’ Union (HSEU) and NTUC’s U Associate Alliance. The MOU was renewed in 2021 by SAOT president Ms Jessica Hooi.
SAOT also participated in Healthcare Services Employee’ Union (HSEU) Quadrennial Delegates Conference on the healthcare industry transformation map and SkillsFuture Framework for healthcare.
In our partnership with NTUC, SAOT also gathered feedback and voices from OT on the ground for the Labour Movement such as on the impact of Phase 2 reopening on businesses and workers, manpower situation, cost cutting measures and wages impact as well as training as a lever to reduce manpower cost and retain manpower.
Ms Charmaine Magnus represented SAOT as committee members in BCA project “The code on accessibility in the built environment 2019”. You can access the document here
SAOT is involved in discussion with HDB in incorporating BCA guidelines into HDB EASE program. We also liaison with HDB and MOH to advocate for continuation of EASE program to promote safe discharges for patients during circuit breaker.
Participated in the MOH Population Health Visioning Workshop, representing the views of OTs and allied health.
SAOT submitted a document to NMP Chia Yong Yong for her consideration for her parliamentary speech on ‘Education for our Future’. Special thanks to Dr May Lim, Dr Karina Dancza, Ms Corrine Hoo and SAOT Council members for their contributions to the statement. You can access the document here
SAOT has been actively involved with National Council of Social Services (NCSS), providing consultancy and networks in exploring and addressing the professional growth of our community-based practitioners.
Our council members have provided advisory support for Back-to-Basics, with most recent contributions including involvement in a Tele-Health/-Rehab Action Learning Group comprising of professional leads and senior practitioners of Social Service Agencies such as APSN, MINDS, and Rainbow Centre.
At the end of the action learning session, community members advocated for the reinvigoration of SAOT’s Work and Productivity Special Interest Group to build on the ground-up momentum driven by Back-to-Basics.