Regional leadership - Health Sciences - Curtin University of ...

WRITTEN BY PATRICK CORNISH
FEATURE
The business of inclusion
AS A CURTIN BUSINESS SCHOOL GRADUATE AND EMPLOYEE AND FORMER PARALYMPIAN GUIDE, TREVOR GODDARD
UNDERSTANDS THE MANY BENEFITS OF ENCOURAGING GREATER PARTICIPATION IN SOCIETY.
The Olympic Games motto – ‘faster, higher,
stronger’ – might have inspired many
world-breaking athletic records, but for
Paralympian guide runner Trevor Goddard
it was the experience, rather than the
outcome, that mattered most.
At Barcelona in 1992 and Atlanta four
years later, he was selected as a staff member
for the Australian Paralympic team, giving
guidance to visually impaired athletes. He
considered the experience an essential part
of his education and all-round citizenship.
Goddard graduated from Curtin Business
School with a Bachelor of Commerce in health
service management in 1997, having already
completed an occupational therapy degree,
and believes that his grasp of these two
disciplines was ‘better, firmer, stronger’ for his
experiences with athletes at the pinnacle of
their sports.
Students undertake overseas placements not just to gain clinical experience, but also to give something back.
“They already had the power for the
performance; they simply required the
partnership with a guide runner to not only
excel on the track but support all their
preparations as well.”
Today, as the Director of International
Relations for Curtin’s School of Occupational
Therapy, his approach to work is not dissimilar
to the role he played at the two Paralympics:
for students heading towards health service
careers, he offers encouragement and a
gentle nudge in the right direction.
Specifically, he coordinates an international
service learning program – nationally-awarded
and recognised – that places occupational
therapy, physiotherapy, speech pathology
and pharmacy students in developing
healthcare services outside Australia.
“China was our first service project.
India and South Africa followed, and the
Ukraine is the most recent addition. After
our address to an Asia-Pacific Occupational
Therapy conference in Hong Kong last year,
Brunel University in London was impressed
and is sending students to join us in China
in August.”
10 review JUNE 2008 CURTIN BUSINESS SCHOOL
THOMASZ MACHNIK
Goddard says the term ‘service learning’
means that Curtin students undertake
overseas placements not just to gain clinical
experience, but also to give something back.
“They learn while providing service of direct
benefit to the host organisations, which might
be short of staff, expertise, funding and
resources,” he explains. “The students leave
something tangible behind. For example,
one group compiled a manual profiling of
every child at the Shanghai BoAi Children’s
Rehabilitation Centre, which will be helpful to
any international volunteer who goes there.
“The ultimate aim is to do ourselves out of
a job – it’s simply capacity building. But I’m
also proud that our students are prepared
to go even further than giving their time and
energy overseas; some put their pay from
part-time jobs towards the projects.”
Goddard says his two undergraduate
degrees have allowed him to see both ends
of the rehabilitation spectrum: social inclusion
that enables people to achieve potential, and
the underpinning business model that respects
social, economic and environmental issues.
“My main interest is the process, rather
TREVOR GODDARD AND STUDENTS FROM THE SCHOOL OF OCCUPATIONAL
THERAPY’S INTERNATIONAL SERVICE LEARNING PROGRAM
than simply the outcome,” he says. “The
process is allowing everybody, with or without
disabilities, to see rehabilitation and community
participation as a universal concern.”
Goddard has completed a Master of
International Studies at Curtin looking at how
companies can invest in local community
partnerships.
“The China link in the program was forged
during my master studies,” elaborates
Goddard. I got to know the project director
of a World Health Organisation program,
based in Hong Kong, working on rehabilitation
schemes throughout China. The Shanghai
Rotary Club was providing wheelchairs to
people with disabilities such as cerebral palsy
to help make them more mobile. But what
was also important was that society at large
could now engage with them as they
participated in everyday things such as work,
shopping and leisure activities. And the local
business community could see the benefits,
both socially and economically.
“Duty of care is a win-win for all concerned.”
Contact: Trevor Goddard
Email: T.Goddard@curtin.edu.au