Hello, welcome to my first ever blog! this blog has been created as part of my participation in occupation paper in my 2nd year of a degree in occupational therapy. It shall detail my progress through the course and share some of the ideas that come to me during the year!

Sunday 29 April 2012


Occupational Engagement, Doing, Being, Becoming and Belonging with cooking.

Cooking, for most, an everyday activity, and a meaningful occupation. In my second placement I ran a number of cooking groups with clients and as it is a meaningful occupation of my own I have chosen as my chosen occupation from fieldwork 1 and 2. My second fieldwork placement was in community mental health. I was asked to, as part of my placement, run activity groups in art/craft, cooking, quiz’s just to name a few.  So here are some images I hope you’ll enjoy around the engagement, doing, being, becoming and belonging that cooking can provide.


Since i was 3 years old and jumped up beside mum when she was cooking for the shearers cooking has been a large part of my life. Cooking is  passion of mine built up over the years by watching my great grandmother, nana, mumpop and mum cook, bake and generally wow the family with their creations. So it seemed natural when asked to run an activity each week on fieldwork to choose some basic cooking recipes and to get to it! We basically had a blast and i definately think that we all learnt something during the sessions, often leaving a very messy kitchen to clean up at the end.  

I've just got a couple of words to say around  defining the title of this post. According to Wilcock (1998) doing  can be defined as anything a person does in the course of their day and states that people spend their lives "doing" purposful acts without "need or obligation". Being, Wilcock states, is being true and honest to yourself. It requires that people have time to truely get to know themselves "to discover and reflect" (Wilcock, 1998). Belonging is part of the sense that your life has value and meaning not just to yourself but also to others (Duggan & Dijkers, 1999) .  Becoming describes the idea that people can see themselves in the future and can work towards what they want to achieve and grow towards being the perzon they want to be. 

The images presented in the slideshow represent these things to me.

Slides 1,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11 all represent the learning and growth that participating in group cooking can provide. they are definately participating in meaningful occupation.
Slides 2, 12,13, 14 all envolve the presentation of food or the way people share food, ie potluck meals and of course the mess thats left after it!
Slides 16 and 19 show some cakes i have made for different members of my family.
Slides 17 and 18 show my enjoyment of food in its many forms
 And finally slide 20 is an image of me and my cousins and sister after a family meal , cooking brings people together.
 

In relation to ethicial considerations i made when using the photos on my slideshow, i took care to ensure that the people who were featured in my personal photos gave verbal consent for me to use their photos online. I also checked the authenticity of the photos that i found online and ensured that i referenced them appropriately so that no one thought they were mine. Finally i made the effort to ensure that the photos were not to me offensive and that no one in them was in a comprimised position.