Team

Experience & Activities

What Western Cape occupational therapist Emily Mouton loves most about her profession is the immediate impact she can make.

“Sometimes just a new cushion and the correct straps behind a backrest take a wheelchair user from unable to able,” she says.

The 45-year-old mother of two, who relocated from Pretoria to the Fairest Cape, brings considerable experience to her role as a Rehab Skills Lab trainer.

From neuro to OT

She came to OT from a background of neurology and home-based rehabilitation in the Unted Kingdom.

Emily wanted to return to South Africa and a colleague referred her to a wheelchair manufacturing company where she later found employment.

During this time, she took a seating course that taught her how to do correct measurements, a welcome shift away from the “gut feel” she had relied on previously.

She now has Basic, Intermediate and Advanced seating qualifications behind her name and is a qualified trainer for both the Basic and Intermediate courses.

This is in addition to her occupational therapy degree from the University of Pretoria.

Do no harm

Emily believes the Basic and Intermediate course she presents is vital as wheelchair seating can affect the whole trajectory of a user’s life.

“The person who prescribes the wheelchair and seats the client on it must know what he or she is doing. Seating is a skill with solid theory that underpins it,” she says.

“It is our ethical responsibility as healthcare providers to equip ourselves with the necessary knowledge in order to do no harm.”

Emily prefers to use real-life examples in her courses as these tell a story of why certain techniques are effective. Her knowledge of wheelchair products is also second to none in that she works for a manufacturer.

She is exceptionally goal-orientated, even when not at work. Aside from reading more, she is also determined to learn how to play the guitar.