For me occupational therapy is all about improving somebody’s quality of life. Considering that you’re working with people with dementia, they might not remember some things as well, so it’s part of my job to orientate them to reality, but also to live in their reality for a bit, which is unique to the job, in my opinion. It’s also about making sure that they live their lives with dignity and engage and socialise and the biggest thing is to have fun, because they’ve lived a good life and it’s my job to have a little bit of fun with them.

I remember my first day clearly. There is a lot of uncertainty around dementia, but it’s about seeing the human being. It was a good first day, I got home and I was like, “I can’t wait to do this”. There is so much potential and so much I can give to the residents which I don’t think our residents or I would be able to find anywhere else.