Sue Parkinson
DR DENISE BAKER: Vice-Chancellor, Pro-Chancellor, Deputy Lord Lieutenant, Mayor of Derby, Honoured guests, Graduands of 2025 and all our guests here today, it gives me great pleasure to present Sue Parkinson for the award of Honorary Doctor of the University.
Sue has dedicated her career of over 35 years to occupational therapy, working primarily in acute mental health settings in Derbyshire. She is one of the key leaders in evidencing and improving occupational therapy practice in the last 25 years. Now retired, she has continued to publish and highlight the importance of her discipline. Her work has influenced the careers of thousands of occupational therapists across the world.
Sue grew up in Scarborough and went on to study Social Anthropology at the University of Sussex. After graduating, she spent a year working with a Quaker peace initiative, helping to facilitate workshops in non-violence, before following in the footsteps of her mother and qualifying as an occupational therapist in 1987.
Sue moved to Chesterfield in Derbyshire in 1989. It was here that students from the University of Derby taught her about the Model Of Human Occupation (or MOHO) developed by Professor Gary Kielhofner in Chicago, and she started investigating the outcome measures associated with this particular model of practice. In time, she wrote to the MOHO Clearing House to share her ideas for a new assessment based on 'getting to know' her clients, and she was amazed when Gary replied and suggested they collaborate. With his mentorship, and the support of her family, Sue became the lead author for the Model Of Human Occupational Screening Tool (or MOHOST) - an assessment sold on a not for profit basis, which is used extensively in the UK and has been translated into 18 languages.
From 2003 onwards, Sue started offering workshops in MOHO and the MOHOST alongside her work in the NHS. In 2005, she was appointed as the Practice Development Adviser for Occupational Therapists in Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.
In 2012, Sue took redundancy to concentrate on her freelance work. She built a reputation as an inspiring trainer, providing workshops, keynote speeches, lectures and Q&A sessions for occupational therapy staff and students. Over the years, she was invited to train occupational therapists in Brussels and Helsinki; to teach occupational therapy students in Chicago; to run workshops across Ireland and Australia; and provide online sessions for occupational therapists in South America and Africa.
Sue also found time to write an intervention handbook, "Recovery Through Activity", which has been translated into French, German and Italian and is now in its second edition; followed by a companion handbook, "Discovery Through Activity". She also co-authored the popular textbook, "A Guide to the Formulation of Plans and Goals in Occupational Therapy".
Although Sue retired from working full-time as a trainer in 2022, she continues to foster links with her occupational therapy colleagues and has recently written a new handbook, "Maintaining Our Health Through Occupation", which is due to be published in 2026 and will support the training of occupational therapy students and the next generation of occupational therapists.
Sue is celebrating here today with her husband Peter, their grown up children Ben and Max, and Max's partner Sid.
Vice-Chancellor, in recognition of her outstanding contribution to occupational therapy practice and her impact on service users, we are delighted to award Sue Parkinson the honorary degree of Doctor of the University.
SUE PARKINSON: They promised me that they would do the Mexican wave!
Thank you, and thank you Denise. And thanks to everyone who organised this celebration, especially those behind the scenes. Thanks in particular for delaying my graduation, which was originally planned for June, so I could be here today with the occupational therapists who are graduating.
I've got to keep three minutes, so don't keep clapping!
Thank you most of all to my family. My achievements are due to their support and a huge amount of good fortune. I was extremely lucky to have both a mum and a mother-in-law who were occupational therapists. I was also really lucky to get a place to study occupational therapy. I felt like I blagged my way through the interview by saying something about my social anthropology degree being relevant, and it turned out I was right! It grounded me in humanistic, non-judgmental approaches and enabled me to see patterns of behaviour that helped me when I was writing the MOHO screening tool assessment.
Careers are never plain sailing. My induction to my first job was being shown by a wonderful technical instructor, where the knitting patterns were, and since then I have made plenty of mistakes.
There have been jobs I applied for that I didn't get. There were jobs I was given that I didn't want. And I would have happily stayed in the NHS if it wasn't for the financial crisis, which meant that my job post was cut.
I never got to study for a masters or a PhD. I'm not an academic. But both "Recovery through Activity" and "A Guide to the Formulation of Plans and Goals in Occupational Therapy" have been the focus of PhD studies, and that's fantastic.
And now here I am going straight from a diploma, that's all we got in 1987, to an honorary doctorate.
And I'd like to take this opportunity to share some of my thoughts in the next book, "Maintaining Our Health Through Occupation", sharing how you can boost your confidence in your careers.
So, first things, follow your values. As you can see from the way I'm dressed, I don't always follow convention. But whenever I've not been sure what to do, which is often, I try to follow my values. And those of you who are occupational therapists might know that Elizabeth Yerxa, who died at the beginning of this year, called your professional values "audacious" values. Isn't that wonderful? Audacious values. So, follow your values. Develop your own roles. Establish your routines. Don't forget to pursue your interests. Always remember to respect and protect the physical environment. I'm very proud of the fact that my new intervention programme will allow occupational therapists to broach this topic with the people they work with, in a considered way.
And finally, continue to build your social connections. That's my recipe for maintaining your health through occupation. And if the OTs amongst you would like to hear more, it's just been announced that I will be delivering the Elizabeth Casson Memorial Lecture in 2026.
Thank you.
Sue Parkinson's commendation video
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