Susanna Davies

I am an experienced Occupational Therapist who is committed to advancing the practice of occupational therapy both in the UK and internationally. As a doctoral student I am interested to investigate the extent to which occupational therapy contributes, if at all, to the sustainability of overseas charities working with disabled people.

Professional roles

Since graduating, my roles have been diverse but primarily involved the development of services and businesses across independent and charitable sectors, including the litigation field.

Previous research

My MPhil research (awarded 1994) examined the relationship between cognition and functional ability in people with dementia living in the community. From this, I assisted in the national and international integration of a functional assessment tool into occupational therapy practice. Measurement of functional capacity and the use of standardised instruments remain an area of interest.

Sustainability

Having volunteered extensively to develop services for disabled people overseas, primarily in Romania, my interest has moved to aspects of sustainability. Offsetting the environmental impact of unwanted assistive (or disability) equipment in the UK, has involved distributing this to low or middle income countries and is the subject of a recently completed Churchill Fellowship.

Teaching

I have several years of cross-cultural teaching experience. Currently, I am a visiting specialist contributing to the module ‘International perspectives and practice requirements’, delivered for masters level students within the School of Health Professions.