My friend Heather Hunter, who has died aged 64 of oesophageal cancer, was an occupational therapist specialising in the mental health of children and families. Although OTs have long been associated with helping adults in the workplace, Heather was one of those who worked alongside other professionals to support traumatised children’s emotional, sensory and environmental needs through the use of play-based therapy. Heather worked for the best part of two decades at leading hospitals in the central belt of Scotland.
Later she moved into the academic field, lecturing at her alma mater, Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh , for 25 years and becoming a champion of applying psychoanalytic thinking to occupational therapy. In 2005 she was appointed a member of the Mental health tribunal for Scotland, which hears applications for, and appeals against, compulsory treatment orders. She fulfilled that role until her death.
Heather was born in Edinburgh to Iain Crawford, a quantity surveyor, and his wife, Isabella (nee Murray), a legal secretary. Heather went to James Gillespie’s high school and then Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, where she completed a diploma in occupational therapy in 1980. Her first job was as an occupational therapist in the social work department at Lothian regional council (1980-83), after which she spent the next 16 years as a senior OT in hospital settings, at Royal Edinburgh hospital (1983-90), the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Glasgow (1990.
