Julie Hughes,  Independent Occupational Therapist.

 

About Julie

 

I am an Occupational Therapist with many years of experience. I initially trained and worked in Queensland, Australia but have now lived and worked in the UK for over 20 years.

 

 

My career so far:

 

• Working as an Independent Occupational Therapist in her own private practice and part-time in the NHS in a Practice Development role. 

 

• Over 4 Years of experience as a Community Paediatric Occupational Therapist working in the NHS in Somerset. I worked alongside Physiotherapists and Speech and Language Therapists to offer assessment and treatment of children and young people with a diverse range of special needs including developmental co-ordination disorder and sensory processing difficulties. Children were seen at their home and/or school setting, individually or in groups. I was involved in presenting educational study days for parents and teachers on sensory processing and coordination difficulties.

 

• In 2008 I trained as a Primary school teacher and completed the Postgraduate Certificate in Education based in Taunton, Somerset.

 

• Over 8 years of experience in Higher education in the undergraduate/ postgraduate training of health care professionals at St Loye’s School of Occupational Therapy, Exeter and then at the University of Plymouth. I have organised and presented local study days and at the annual College of Occupational Therapist’s conference. I am a reviewer for the British Journal of Occupational Therapy. Most recently I was a Lecturer in Postgraduate Education with the Peninsula Schools of Medicine and Dentistry (2013).

 

• In 1997 I became the first fulltime Occupational Therapist in the NHS Leeds CFS/ME service. I offered assessment and individual or group interventions specific to CFS/ ME. I was actively involved in the education of clients/families, health professionals and the general public on the topic of CFS/ME. My Masters research dissertation was on CFS/ME and I contributed to the development of the NICE clinical guideline for CFS/ ME on behalf of the College of Occupational Therapists. 

 

• I have extensive experience of working within adult mental health services in the Australian Health care system and then the UK National Health Service (NHS) as a clinician and Manager in the National Health Service across most types of mental health settings.