2022 Elizabeth Casson Memorial Lecture

This learning resource is a reflective toolkit that will assist you to widen your learning from the RCOT 2022 Elizabeth Casson Memorial Lecture delivered by Dr Sidney Chu. It is accompanied by a facilitator guide for those who wish to learn in groups. You can use these alongside the lecture recording.

Career Development Pillar and Career Levels: Leadership 1-9

We received lots of great questions for Dr Sidney Chu at our 2022 Casson Lecture. Dr Chu has kindly answered those questions we didn’t have enough time for and shared them in the below document.  

Download and read Dr Sidney Chu’s article, submitted to the British Journal of Occupational Therapy and published in June 2022. 

Dr Chu is recognised as an outstanding practitioner who has a very strong national and international profile in the field of paediatrics. He has been at the forefront of the profession in the areas of clinical practice, service development, innovation and model dissemination, and is acknowledged for his teaching and publications - a respected leader and mentor held in high regard by his peers.

Dr Chu obtained his occupational therapy (OT) qualification from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University in 1982. He worked for 5 years in a charity for infants and preschool children with special needs. He was a pioneer in setting up services in nursery centres and early intervention programmes as the OT profession was quite new in Hong Kong at that time. Dr Chu completed advanced clinical training in sensory integration therapy and neurodevelopmental treatment before moving to the UK in 1987.

Besides qualification in OT, Dr Chu has a British Dyslexia Association Diploma in teaching students with dyslexia and also a Post-graduate Diploma in Biomechanics from the University of Strathclyde in 1990. He completed his Master of Science degree in Health Psychology at the London City University in 1995. In 2005, he completed his PhD on ‘Developing a multi-faceted intervention model for children with Attention deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)’ at the Brunel University London. He received the Vice-Chancellor Award for outstanding PhD study, one of the many awards he has been given in recognition of his achievements and exceptional service.

Dr Chu has always been at the forefront of the profession in service development. He uses his expert knowledge in clinical practice and different service improvement strategies to benefit his staff, paediatric service users and their parents. In his previous NHS management job, he worked collaboratively with different stakeholders and staff members to develop the largest fully-integrated and multi-agency funded paediatric occupational therapy service in the country in a London Borough. The service adopted an integrated model of service delivery with various clinical pathways and management protocols which provided a seamless and cost-effective services across health, education, social care and public health. It is recognised as a centre of excellence in the UK and was shortlisted as one of the finalists for the Health Service Journal Award in 2014.

Dr Chu is keen to share his knowledge and has published many clinical and practice-based papers, journal research articles and chapters in book. He has made a significant contribution to teaching and education, especially for paediatric occupational therapists and other health and education professionals in their continuous professional development. Besides contributing to different undergraduate and postgraduate OT courses, he has given numerous talks, seminars and keynote lectures in national and international conferences. He has developed 13 clinical and management courses for occupational therapists and other professionals and has presented over 250 courses in the last 32 years within the UK and abroad.

Throughout his career as an occupational therapist, Dr Chu has been actively involved in different professional activities at local, regional and national levels. For examples, he was involved in the development of the Dyspraxia Foundation (UK), a national charity for the promotion of awareness and service for children with Developmental Coordination Disorder. He was one of the founder members and ex-Chairperson of the British Institute for Sensory Integration. He is an honorary member of the Sensory Integration Network – UK & Ireland. He served as a member of the RCOT Education and Practice Board and also the undergraduate OT course committee of the Brunel University London.

Since retiring as Company Director of the Kid Power Therapy and Training Co. Ltd. in 2019, Dr Chu now focuses on mentoring other occupational therapists and writing books to disseminate clinical and management information. He continues to be a reviewer of the British Journal of Occupational Therapy and contributes his expertise on specific tasks as requested by the RCOT.

The lecture is a memorial to Elizabeth Casson (1881-1954) in honour of her contributions to the profession of occupational therapy. The first woman to be awarded the degree of Doctor of Medicine of the University of Bristol in 1929, Elizabeth Casson specialised in psychiatry and introduced occupational therapy to England, setting up the first school of occupational therapy, Dorset House, in Bristol.

We award the lectureship to an RCOT member whose peers consider them to have made and be making a significant contribution to the profession’s development.

See our previous Elizabeth Casson Memorial lecturers.