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Ms Kit Sinclair, an outstanding and dedicated academic in rehabilitation sciences from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) has been elected the 12th President of the World Federation of Occupational Therapists in its 50-year history and the first Hong Konger to head this global professional association.

An Assistant Professor of the Department of Rehabilitation Sciences at PolyU, Ms Sinclair has practiced and taught the discipline of occupational therapy in Hong Kong for 32 years. When she arrived in 1969, there were 25 foreign occupational therapists practicing in the city. Today, the Special Administrative Region boasts over 800 working Occupational Therapists. Ms Sinclair has helped train all of them.

A founding faculty member of the three-year honours degree programme, Ms Sinclair was elected to the post of world leader of her profession at a recent World Meeting in Sweden.

"I think the decision reflects the increased stature of occupational therapy in Hong Kong," said the American-born academic. "I am intensely proud of the young men and women who graduate from our university. They are the equal of any professionals in the world."

Ms Sinclair has led the drive to take skills taught at the Hunghom campus to the universities and teaching hospitals of China. In conjunction with Rotary Club of Hong Kong, and with the active encouragement of Dr Harry Fang, President of the Hong Kong Society of Rehabilitation, she and rehabilitation colleagues produced a Putonghua video tape and books that have been distributed as a teaching aid for rehabilitation professionals throughout China.

She has lectured and taught at many universities in China, including Shijiazhuang, Nanjing, Guangzhou, Hefei, Wuhan and Handan. Consultancies have taken her to remote country areas where professional care for people with disability and methods of helping them to lead meaningful lives were previously unknown.

Internationally, she has given voluntary consultation in countries as diverse as Venezuela, Chile, Italy, Austria, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Kenya, South Africa, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand.

She was named a Fellow of the World Federation of Occupational Therapists, the highest honour from the world body, and was named a Rotary International Fellow for her outreach work in China. The Chinese Association for Rehabilitation Medicine has named her a Special Consultant.

"As President of the World Federation of Occupational Therapists, I share the vision of promoting health and participation for all people equally in society," she said. "Occupational therapists around the world are devoted to helping people of all ages and with all types of disability to reach this goal."

"At the Polytechnic University, we graduate 80 dedicated young men and women every year who are highly skilled at aiding people who have had a stroke, serious accident, psychological problem or any kind of disability, to live active lives again."

Ms Sinclair grew up in New York, and was professionally educated at Washington University in St Louis. She has a master’s degree in education from Surrey University in UK and is finishing her Ph.D. which deals with clinical reasoning and education.

As a young graduate occupational therapist she joined the Peace Corps and spent two years in rural Korea, working in orphanages and clinics. She came to Hong Kong in 1969 and worked in children's hospitals and for the Medical and Health Department before joining the Polytechnic in 1978.

She has served as chairman of the Hong Kong Occupational Therapy Association, as honorary treasurer of the World Federation of Occupational Therapists and production editor of the WFOT Bulletin.

"As President, I will continue to facilitate the constant stream of occupational therapy educational exchanges and professional visits between Hong Kong therapists and those in other countries," she said. "That's vital for the growth of the profession and our very high standards. The Polytechnic University has more than 1,000 occupational therapy graduates and a faculty of 15 internationally known therapists."

The World Federation of Occupational Therapists which she now heads, is a professional organization that links professional bodies in 57 countries. It speaks for 120,000 therapists around the world. Their web site (www.wfot.org.au) is constantly evolving.

She said, “It's a great honour to be President of our global body, and it is recognition that the profession of occupational therapy in Hong Kong ranks with the best in the world.”

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