Spotlight on ...
This issue our staff spotlight falls on Morven McLelland ... 
Name: Morven McLelland
Job Title: Senior Practioner Occupational Therapist
Background: I went to North Berwick High School and left in 1989 when I moved to London to train to become an Occupational Therapist. I qualified in 1992 and worked within the NHS for 17 years before moving ‘home’ to East Lothian.
My training involved 3 years of a mix of science, humanities and my clinical placements were all based in Guys and St Thomas’ Hospital Trust where I worked in Paediatrics, Womens’ Mental Health, Older People and Rehabilitation, Trauma and Orthopaedics, Stroke Rehabilitation and Community Older Peoples Mental Health. This was an amazing start to my career as an Occupational Therapist and I believe gave me good grounding for my future career.
After my first paid job I took a break and travelled around Africa. A once in a lifetime opportunity which allowed me to grow in confidence as an individual but also as an Occupational Therapist as many of my skills were put to use during my travels.
I returned to London and continued to work full time until I had my children and then when I secured the job in East Lothian I requested to work part time to help the work / life balance.
How long have you been with the council? Eleven years and 3 months.
Who do you work with? Our team is based in Randall House in Macmerry. The office is open plan and would guess there are approximately 170 members of staff here which challenges your memory each day trying to remember names.
As an Occupational Therapist we work extremely closely with Social Workers, Community Care workers, Managers and home care staff. We also share the office and work with all these staff and others including strategy, business support, Telecare and Mental Health Officers.
What does your job involve? The Occupational Therapy team uses assessment and therapeutic interventions to develop and enable recovery or to maintain the daily living skills of people with physical, mental or cognitive disorders. The Occupational Therapy team focuses much of their work on identifying and eliminating environmental barriers to independence and participation in daily activities. The team uses a client centred approach that places emphasis on progress towards the client’s goals and engenders independence. The Occupational Therapy team’s interventions encompass modification of the task, teaching the skill and educating the client/family/carers as well as adapting the environment in order to increase participation in their performance of daily activities, particularly those that are meaningful to the client. The Occupational Therapy team work closely with professionals in physiotherapy, speech language therapy, nursing, social work and other agencies as well as stakeholders in the community.
What do you like most about your job? I love my job. Perhaps sounds corny but I’ve worked as an Occupational Therapist for 26 years and not once have considered a career move. Perhaps Im lucky that I found a job that I’d love forever.
The team I currently work with are ‘the best’ team ever, they are kind, caring, intelligent, supportive and extremely funny. I feel extremely privileged to work with them all.
Plans for the future? I really enjoy my current job as an Occupational therapist and feel the role continually develops and ‘develops me’. I think my future plans are really to stay happy and healthy and enjoy life as much as possible.
What do you enjoy out of the office? I have a number of activities I enjoy outside of work. I am a volunteer for Muirfield Riding Therapy and use Occupational Therapy to help develop fine and gross motor skills and function in children who attend these sessions. I also have a share in a horse who I ride a number of times each week to keep me fit and helps me relax (unless he’s being silly!). I go to the gym once a week and have started riding Fatbikes. I also have 2 teenage boys and a dog – lots of things to do which is why I working part time is perfect for me! Having less money is ‘ not so good’ but you’ve got to get the balance right.