Sharon Brintnell Lectureship Award in Advancing Occupational Therapy

Recognizing the "mother of occupational therapy" for her distinguished 54-year career

In acknowledgment of her global leadership in the field of occupational therapy, the Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine is establishing a lectureship in her honour.

A trailblazer in the field of occupational therapy, E. S. (Sharon) Brintnell has spent her 54-year career advancing, developing, expanding and advocating for the profession. An educator and mentor to countless occupational therapy professionals world-wide, Brintnell's international accomplishments include the development of the profession in Kuwait and Indonesia, which resulted in the Indonesian reference to her as the "mother of occupational therapy." Her commitment goes beyond projects, as her personal undertakings involve supporting and mentoring emerging professionals as they take on the responsibilities for academic leadership.

With the aim of getting people back to the everyday activities that are meaningful to their lives, occupational therapists work with people of all ages who have experienced an illness affecting physical or mental health, an injury or a disability. They also work with families, communities and organizations in a supportive capacity. Throughout her career, Brintnell has focused her research on supporting and understanding the occupational (life tasks) performance of individuals with persistent mental illnesses, prenatal exposure to alcohol, those within the prison system, veterans and First Nation communities.

During her time with the University of Alberta's Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine, Brintnell has been vital to the advancement of the occupational therapy program. In the 1980s, she helped guide the program's accreditation, developing a curriculum based on theoretical models. She designed and led the introduction of an accelerated program, which addressed a critical provincial human-resource shortage by turning out an additional 120 occupational therapists in just four years. The accelerated program also opened up a number of community-based experiences for students. These were in non-governmental organizations and faith-based service agencies in the inner city through an indirect supervisory approach with an offsite occupational therapist hired by the university. She was instrumental in promoting occupational therapy education in Saskatchewan and negotiating a contract with the Government of Saskatchewan to send students to the University of Alberta where seats were allocated for them in the accelerated program, an agreement which continues today with the master's program.

She also pioneered a fee-for-service, not-for-profit interdisciplinary model of community-based rehabilitation services with the introduction of the Occupational Performance Analysis Unit (OPAU) to the faculty, which she has directed since its inception. It successfully demonstrated a role for occupational therapists in medicolegal assessments and offering expert services to special populations (veterans and 16 First Nation communities). It also proved that occupational therapists could support themselves in private practice.

There is always another opportunity to serve the community, and after retirement, professor Brintnell intends to continue with her collaboration with indigenous communities in development of local services and supports for their Community members, particularly those with disabilities and in contact with the justice system. She also serves on a number of provincial health and professional advisory committees.

She is happiest at the Brintnell cottage on Lake Wabamun, which has been in her family for over 75 years. She is looking forward to spending more time there with friends, family and her five grandchildren.

In honour of her foundational work within the faculty, the department and the field of occupational therapy, the Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine is creating the Sharon Brintnell Lectureship Award in Advancing Occupational Therapy.

Donations and philanthropic gifts are being sought to help establish an endowment to support the lectureship award, which will recognize an individual who has made a significant contribution to advancing the profession of occupational therapy locally, nationally or internationally. Each award recipient will provide a lecture as a means to engage students, alumni, faculty and staff in the Department of Occupational Therapy and the Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine, the broader academic community and the general public.

Brintnell's dedication to the field has enhanced the visibility and recognition of occupational therapy as an essential health and social service internationally, and her legacy at the University of Alberta will continue with this lectureship and with future occupational therapy graduates.

Pioneer in Occupational Therapy

• Served as vice president, finance for the World Federation of Occupational Therapists for ten years and as president from 2008-2014, during which time she increased the organization's financial base, strove to increase the existing credential of occupational therapy within the Minimum Standards for the Education of Occupational Therapists, as well as the profession's impact on consultation and collaboration with the World Health Organization.
• Notably recognized in Indonesia for co-chairing a project funded by the Canadian International Development Agency to establish an occupational therapy educational program there from 1989-1994 and developing a relationship between the University of Alberta and the country.
• She also contributed to building an educational program in Kuwait over twenty-four years from 1988-2012.
• Played a major role in the creation and ongoing development of the Occupational Therapy Guidelines for Client Centered Practice, chairing the volume on mental health.
• Contributing author to the next generation of the guidelines expressed in Enabling Occupation: An Occupational Therapy Perspective.
• Instrumental in orchestrating obtaining a grant from the R. S. McLaughlin Examination and Research Centre in Edmonton to support launching a national certification examination for occupational therapists in 1983.
• Served as president of the Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists (CAOT) ('78-'79).
• Consultant to the National Institute of Disability Management and Research (NIDMAR) in developing their certification process.
• She has qualified seven times in the Alberta Court of Queen's Bench as an expert in occupational performance and functional assessments.

Green and Gold Legacy

• Professor Brintnell's retirement in 2018 will mark 47 years of continuous service to the University of Alberta, which she joined in 1971.
• Acting head of the Department of Occupational Therapy ('75-'76)
• Thirteen years as chair of the department
• Acting dean of the faculty ('91-'92)
• Director of the OPAU from 1985 to present
• Served on the Vice President Academic's Advisory Committee on Restructuring for three years, overseeing significant structural changes within the University's Faculty of Medicine and the then Faculty of Home Economics as well as the masters programs in administration.

Honours

• 1985, the CAOT presented Brintnell the Muriel Driver Memorial Lectureship Award, which honours a member who has made an outstanding contribution to the profession through research, education and practice.
• The Alberta Association of Registered Occupational Therapists presented her with a gold medal in 1985 for her leadership in developing the profession's provincial legislation.
• She received the Karen Goldenberg Award for outstanding volunteer achievement from the Canadian Occupational Therapy Foundation in 1991.
• In 2014, she delivered the inaugural address of the WFOT Lectureship.
• She was awarded the 2017 Alumni Achievement Award from the University of Toronto, where she earned a diploma in physical and occupational therapy in 1964, for her outstanding contributions and dedication to the profession of occupational therapy.