Description
The OT Link welcomes Beth Conolly and Kirstyn Lloyd as panelists for the live case study session
Naomi Beth Conolly (commonly known as Beth) is an occupational therapist, researcher, and trainer based in Stellenbosch, Western Cape. Driven by a commitment to health equity, Beth focuses on expanding access to developmental services for children in low-resource communities—particularly those facing neurodevelopmental and mental health challenges.
With over five years of experience in community development and research, Beth developed the Create2Grow initiative and has led widespread training programs grounded in her “decentralised, community-based practice approach.” To date, she has trained more than 550 teachers, caregivers, students, and community workers in early identification and intervention strategies.
Beth currently serves as the Training and Research Coordinator at Khula Development Group and is a clinical supervisor for final-year occupational therapy students at Stellenbosch University. At Khula, she works alongside a multidisciplinary team dedicated to preventing school dropout among primary school learners. The organisation supports nine schools and over 400 families in the Cape Winelands region, achieving an 84% success rate in helping children either transition to the Intermediate Phase or receive targeted case management for long-term support.
Kirstyn Lloyd has a degree in Occupational Therapy. Working clinically across under-resourced communities in South Africa and within the UK’s NHS, she has witnessed first-hand how systems often fall short of meeting long-term needs. This has fuelled her dedication to championing sustainable programmes—ones that are contextually relevant, inclusive, and community-driven.
Through her work with Kids Collab and initiatives like PlayParks and the Parent Playbox, Kirstyn has learned that sustainable change requires strategy, collaboration, and continuous reflection. Her clinical lens brings a holistic, client-centered approach to programme development, ensuring that interventions are not only evidence-based but adaptable, scalable, and rooted in dignity and equity.
Kirstyn is particularly interested in the intersection of health and education as tools for social innovation and empowerment. She is passionate about work that builds futures—not dependencies.
The recorded session was presented by
Jennifer Hooper [(MSc(OT)] has a special interest in the treatment of children with ASD and the support of their families. She completed her Masters Research Report on the topic “Caregivers needs for service provision for their children with Autism Spectrum Disorders”. Her career highlights include: running a multidisciplinary clinic for children with ASD and their parents at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital and treating clients with ASD in private practice and the special school system in the UK.
Jennifer has worked in the public health, private practice, and NPO clinical settings covering general practice, paediatrics (medicine and surgery, neurology, psychiatry, learning and development) and medico-legal functional capacity client loads. She has also taught in the under graduate OT programme at WITS University and at post graduate level predominantly in the fields of neurological rehabilitation and paediatrics. Jennifer’s passions include: teaching and learning; working with families and children towards realising their goals and happy, healthy living; multi-disciplinary, quality service delivery based on sound evidence-based principles; activities(!) and the magic of the task-orientated approach.
