Patricia Sunderland: an Irish registered mental nurse and pioneer of occupational therapy

Occupational therapy started at Cardiff City Mental Hospital in 1930, led by Sister Patricia Sunderland, a registered mental nurse and occupational therapist. This is noteworthy because neither Wales, nor Sunderland, have been recognised as pioneers of occupational therapy before. Sunderland’s description of a hospital wide service for in- and out-patients at Cardiff is one of the first accounts written by an occupational therapist.[1] Research to date indicates that Sunderland was the first Irish person to use thetitle and to write about occupational therapy in Wales.[2]