Exploring the Art of Occupation

Today, 11th September, marks the launch of a brand new series of Taskmaster on Channel Four, but it also holds a very personal meaning for me as tomorrow 12th September should have been our wedding day back in 2020, but both my hospitalisation and the pandemic put a stop to that.

It feels like the perfect moment to share this reflection, which brings together an occupational therapy model I use often in practice, my lived experiences of disability, the joy of weddings and celebrations, and of course, the pure genius of Rosie Jones.

I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Taskmaster and Me: Occupation as Entertainment

Taskmaster has long been a favourite show of mine and my husband’s. Its mix of ridiculous tasks, creative problem-solving, and unpredictable humour speaks to something very human. We love it so much that, with help from my brother, we used the Taskmaster format at our wedding blessing. Each table of guests became a team, taking part in playful occupations and challenges throughout the afternoon. It remains one of the most talked-about parts of the day joyful, inclusive, and full of laughter. A celebration of shared doing.

That’s part of why I love Taskmaster so much it shows people engaging in occupation in real time, often with chaos, frustration, triumph, and the full messiness of being human.

Rosie Jones and Representation

I’ve long followed Rosie Jones’ comedy, first discovering her at the Edinburgh Fringe. That show made me both laugh and cry. She wove her lived experience of ataxic cerebral palsy (CP), a form of CP that mainly affects balance and coordination into her set with brutal honesty and clever humour. Since then, I’ve seen her perform multiple times, followed her on social media, and watched with admiration as she’s challenged ableism head-on. She’s never been afraid to call out the cruel and ignorant comments that still come her way, while continuing to deliver sharp, subversive, and joyful comedy.

So when we found out Rosie was going to be on Taskmaster, we couldn’t wait. I found myself wondering how the show would handle reasonable adjustments. Would her access needs be met in a way that allowed her to participate fully, without it being made into a spectacle?

What I saw was brilliant.

There were subtle, thoughtful changes made to the Taskmaster house that only the eagle-eyed would notice like a handrail by the door. Teaming Rosie up with Jack Dee for the group tasks was also a genius move. Their dry humour and slightly chaotic energy made them a perfect comic pairing. But most of all, Rosie wasn’t framed as “inspirational” she was just Rosie. Cheeky, clever, strategic, chaotic, and funny. She brought her full self to the screen and was met with the same space and silliness as everyone else. That in itself is rare and refreshing.

Why the VdTMoCA is Used in Mental Health – and Why Diagnosis Doesn’t Define Ability

The Vona du Toit Model of Creative Ability (VdTMoCA) is widely used in mental health because it focuses on a person’s motivation to act and their ability to act with purpose regardless of diagnosis. Mental health conditions often affect energy, motivation, confidence, and how people structure their time. This model allows therapists to assess where someone is functioning and to design interventions that are pitched just right not too hard, not too easy.

What I appreciate most is that VdTMoCA does not assume anything based on labels or diagnoses. For example, someone with cerebral palsy like Rosie might be functioning at a very high level of creative ability. Someone else, with no visible disability, might be functioning at an earlier level due to the impact of depression or trauma.

This is something I understand from lived experience. I have right-sided hemiplegia, a form of cerebral palsy that affects movement and coordination on the right side of my body. I also live with dyslexia and the ongoing impact of long COVID, both of which affect my cognitive functioning things like memory, word-finding, and mental fatigue. These experiences shape how I engage in everyday occupations, and why I value models that make space for fluctuation, nuance, and non-linear progress.

Rosie’s Creative Ability: Contributory and Competitive

Watching Rosie in Taskmaster, it’s clear she operates between the Contributory and Competitive levels of creative ability. She initiates tasks, brings her own ideas, and adapts creatively when things don’t go to plan. She contributes meaningfully in group tasks, navigates challenge with humour and strategy, and often redefines the task on her own terms.

She doesn’t just participate she transforms. That, to me, is occupation at its fullest.

Of course, I want to be clear that while I’m using Rosie as an example here to help explain how the model works in practice, I am in no way formally assessing or defining her within the model. This is purely for illustrative purposes, and to support better understanding of how occupational therapists use the VdTMoCA to recognise and respond to people’s engagement in everyday activity.

It’s also worth noting that someone functioning at this level particularly in terms of motivation, identity, and cognitive ability would not typically require occupational therapy intervention aimed at developing functional or cognitive skills. Rosie clearly demonstrates strong executive functioning, decision-making, and occupational identity.

However, other occupational therapy models might help us understand the adaptations made to the environment and tasks to enable equitable participation such as the inclusion of a handrail, or the task design that allowed all participants to contribute in their own way.

Models such as:

• The Person–Environment–Occupation (PEO) model, which explores the fit between the person, their environment, and the occupation. Read more here Popular Culture Through an OT Lens: Lizzie Acker, Bake Off and the Canadian Model of Occupational Participation
• The Canadian Model of Occupational Performance and Engagement (CMOP-E), which considers enabling occupation through meaningful engagement and environmental support.
• The Kawa Model, which uses the metaphor of a river to explore how a person flows through their life, considering obstacles and supports. Read more here Popular Culture Through an OT Lens: Taylor Swift and the Kawa Model of Life Flow

These models all offer valuable ways of thinking about adaptation, participation, and occupational justice. I’ll be exploring some of them in future blog posts as part of an ongoing series on relating occupational therapy models to popular culture because occupation happens everywhere, even on the most chaotic game shows.

Final Thoughts: Creative Ability in Everyday Life

Taskmaster might be designed for laughs, but it also shows us something raw and real about being human. Given a silly task and a bit of time, people reveal their coping strategies, their confidence, their humour, and their creativity. That’s occupation.

The VdTMoCA helps us make sense of these moments in a structured way. It gives us a language for understanding how and why people engage, and what supports them to do so more fully. Watching Rosie Jones thrive in that space occupationally being, creating, contributing, competing reminded me again of the power of the right environment, the right support, and the right to just be yourself.

Thanks as always for reading xx