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For as long as he could remember, Greg Campbell had wanted to work in health care.
There were a number of options he was considering - nursing, dentistry, or medicine - all through high school and into his first few years at Dalhousie.
But it wasn’t until his third year of his undergrad that the Miramichi, N.B. native became aware of occupational therapy and knew almost instantly that is what he wanted to do.
“I was looking around at what was available, but I think what really drove me into OT school was the philosophy behind it, a lot of it was teaching people practical skills,” he said. “It was very generalist, so it gave me a lot of options - in case I wasn’t particularly interested in one area, I could go into another.”
Upon graduation, Campbell explored different routes he could take within occupational therapy, both in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.
He gravitated towards mental health and in August 2023 joined the inpatient psychiatry unit at the Colchester East Hants Health Centre in Truro.
“I wanted to get into a profession that helps stigmatized individuals, people who have had a hard time,” he said.
“I think that passion really came up during my third placement at a community clinic and…really helping individuals there felt quite rewarding.”
The job taps into his penchant for problem-solving and love of tackling challenges. He’s constantly communicating with his team and the patient to find the best way to serve their needs and get them back to where they want to be.
“It’s definitely got some challenges to it, but I think a lot of the times in OT around mental health you have to think outside the box a bit, too,” he explained. “Which is rewarding in a way. It’s not like ‘here is the structure’, you’re working with people and an issue comes up and you have to figure things around that.”
His role involves individual and group therapy, with a focus on assessment and intervention, particularly on the individual side.
“I think the key thing that I focus on is getting people back to kind of functional levels. So, we look at what really are the barriers that are preventing someone to be functioning to a level that they want to be at.”