Occupational therapist Denise ‘Dee’ Christie, from near Bury St Edmunds, recognised with OBE in New Year Honours for services to profession

A ‘dedicated’ expert of the occupational therapy profession has said it was a ‘lovely’ surprise to be put forward for an OBE in the New Year Honours.

Denise Christie, known as Dee, from Bardwell, near Bury St Edmunds, will be made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for services to occupational therapy.

Occupational therapy helps people live their best life at home, at work – and everywhere else - and is a science-based, health and social care profession that’s regulated by the Health and Care Professions Council.

Dee, 71, who is retired from paid work, is chair of the Elizabeth Casson Trust, whose purpose is to advance the profession of occupational therapy and support the development of occupational therapists.

Dee has been an occupational therapist for 50 years working as a clinician, service manager and leader, with her ‘niche’ in social care.

Of her OBE, Dee said it was ‘lovely’ to gain the recognition, and a ‘lovely award for the profession in many ways’.

“It was a lovely surprise,” said Dee, who moved to Suffolk after she retired. “To be honest it’s a lovely way to start 2024. I celebrate 50 years in my profession this year so it’s sort of a bit of a double whammy for me.”

As a young woman, in 1970, Dee could have worked for an airline, as ground staff, but her nan persuaded her to go into further study.

“So off I went to look at what I could do and I found occupational therapy. If I’m honest, I probably didn’t know what it was when I started training, but it was great.”

She started off working for the NHS, but said she realised she ‘hated hospitals’ and moved into social care, in around 1977.

“I worked for a London borough for a long time and just loved it because it gave me the chance to think about rehabilitation for people in their real-life setting,” she said. “Hospital isn’t their real-life setting. So I spent my career in social care.”

Dee worked at West Sussex County Council, where she managed and led a wide variety of community services, for 27 years until her retirement in 2014.

The development of her profession was always a priority for her, serving on boards and committees for the Royal College of Occupational Therapists (RCOT) and as chairman of RCOT Council from 2006-9.

Post-retirement she continued her career-long passion for community rehabilitation and evidence-informed practice.

Highlights of her career include: being appointed to set up a brand new occupational therapy service at West Sussex County Council in 1987; chairing a NICE Guideline Committee on Intermediate Care – the only Allied Health Professional (AHP) to have served in that role; and receiving a fellowship from her professional body the RCOT in 2022.

Dee said: “I would say my career has been peppered with lots of leadership roles and in those leadership roles the important things to me have been the staff and making sure they are well-looked after, properly supported, can continue to learn and can do the job they are there to do, and the people who use the service.”

She added: “I feel like I have been very privileged in many ways and very lucky.”

As Dee trained at Dorset House in Oxford, the school started by Elizabeth Casson who founded occupational therapy in England, she said it felt ‘very heartening’ to come ‘full circle’ and chair the trust.

Naomi Hankinson, vice-chair of the Elizabeth Casson Trust, said on behalf of the trustees: “Occupational therapists are often the unsung heroes of health and social care so to see a dedicated, creative expert who has put years of service into raising standards for people receiving occupational therapy acknowledged is truly lovely.”