Maria O'Malley:
My name is Maria O'Malley. I am the OT Clinical Lead and have worked in Newham for 22 years. Newham is a borough that I know well, living here and going to school here and deciding to stay here to invest in my career as an Occupational Therapist. I am privileged to work with some amazing families whose lives at times are challenging, yet they continue to be the best advocates they can be for their children.
I remain committed to building this team of amazing occupational therapists from all over the world to ensure we deliver the best OT Service we can for the children and young people in Newham.
Mairead Fergus
I am a Band 7 Occupational Therapist from Ireland. I started working in Newham as a Band 6 Locum OT for a short term contract in September 2014. I was lucky enough to interview and be successful for as permanent post 7 months later and I have been here ever since.
Some of the things which keep me here in Newham enjoying my work and keeping me motivated are the amazing resilient families we work with, the extraordinary people I work with across all teams, and the support, learning and opportunities for growth and career development offered by management and the trust. I am proud to say that I work in Newham and it has and always will have a special place in my heart.
Tin Oi Lui
I am Children's Occupational Therapist working in the Children's Services in Newham. I love working with children because they are unique and special in their own ways and I'd like to help them live their lives to their fullest potential. I have had experiences working with children with autism in different countries before working in Newham. I enjoy working with families and schools in Newham because of its cultural diversity and resilience in supporting their children with different ranges of needs. I treasure every learning opportunity from working closely and forming partnerships with families, schools, and other healthcare professionals, everyone wants the best for the children and is willing to adopt suggested strategies. I am proud to be part of one of the biggest children's OT team in London. Our team is fantastic, passionate and wanting to make a better change in the service we provide for families and schools.
Melissa Homer
I am a Band 7 OT and have worked in Newham for 7 years. I love working with all the children and families and each and every child teaches me something new everyday, it is a real privilege to serve Newham and its community. I am passionate about play as an Occupation and supporting children to fill their potential.
Hannah Begg
I studied in Australia and moved to England in 2019 for an adventure, because I love meeting new people and seeing new places. I enjoy celebrating the wonderful strengths that children and families have, and helping them to succeed in the activities they care about in their day. It’s very important to me that children and families who need extra support, feel listened to and important. I particularly love working with children, to think of creative ways of improving things together. I have spent the last 6 years working with children, teenagers and adults across developmental support services, schools, mental health settings and hospitals, and always enjoy learning new things with the children and families I meet.
Angel (Mei Po) Shum
I am a new occupational therapist in the team. I came to London all the way from Hong Kong in 2017 to study something that I love - occupational therapy. I have been working as an OT in Newham in a different setting for the last 2 years. I am very excited and looking forward to working with different amazing children and families. I am grateful for all the learning opportunities that I got in this passionate and experienced team.
Shazmin Begum
I am extremely lucky to have started my career as an Occupational Therapist with this amazing team and service, being a children's Occupational Therapist was the reason I persued this career path. I previously worked as a special needs teaching assistant and was able to see the impact of OT in a child's life and the positive influences at home and school.
I am passionate about providing personalised care, unique to the child. By means of using creativity, problem solving skills and play to make therapeutic goals achievable. As well as enabling the development and maintenance of skills for the child to become as independent as possible. Newham is a beautifully diverse borough, I have witnessed the positive effects of how my Bangladeshi heritage has enabled better communication with some families. I hope by developing trust and building therapeutic relationships, I can empower children to reach their goals and help them grow to become a more independent individual.
Kathleen Headley
I have worked in Newham for over 18 years. Initially with Newham Health Visiting Service and now with the Children’s Occupational Therapy Team. I have always worked with children and their families in various settings and I am passionate about supporting children to thrive and develop their skills to their full potential. I understand and respect many of the challenges parents face when they are having to juggle constantly changing priorities, as well as the individual needs of their child/ren. Working in partnership with parents to achieve their child’s goals is something I am equally passionate about.
I find my job both rewarding and humbling as I have been able to support many children on their Occupational Therapy journey, but I have also learnt so much from the families I have worked with.
Beth Hipwell
As an OT, I spend lots of time playing, exploring and problem solving with children and young people to help them achieve their goals. I love being creative at work and I use toys, imaginative play, crafts and other tools to make therapy fun. As part of my OT role, I also provide specialist services including upper limb splinting clinics and early intervention for babies and infants. Outside of work, I love playing and performing music and sometimes I use songs and instruments in my OT sessions to help children develop their upper limb skills and play skills.
Louis Purpura
I am an Occupational Therapist from the Philippines. I have been working in Newham since May 2021 and made one of the best decisions to move and work in a people – focused Trust. It is great to work with people coming from different cultural backgrounds and vast professional experiences to deliver our helping hand to the service users. It is a positive learning opportunity to work with the children, families and community links in this borough as it continuously drives the passion to be brilliantly practical and resourceful in unleashing the optimal potential of our service users.
Bethany Mann
I feel privileged to be working among such a diverse and highly skilled team of therapists. I love working together with people and understanding each individual need which helps me to journey alongside and support children and families to achieve their full potential. Being an OT means I get to build relationships through play and problem solving, celebrating each child’s unique set of characteristics and skills and use these to support with challenges they may have in activities that are important to them. I love the diversity of this borough and I look forward to journeying with and learning something new from every family I meet.
Phoebe Bazalgette
My name is Phoebe and I am one of the Band 6 OTs here at West Ham Lane. I have worked here for two years and have loved every minute of it! This is such a deeply knowledgeable, fun, diverse and caring team of OTs and I am looking forward to many more years here. I enjoy working with and learning from everyone here, as well as from the amazing families we see every day. The parents and carers we encounter are inspirational in the hard work and dedication they devote to their children. It's a privilege to be allowed into their homes and their lives so that together we can enable every child to reach their full potential and support the whole family to live their best lives.