Heather Hunter Obituary
My friend Heather Hunter, who died of esophageal cancer at age 64, was an occupational therapist specializing in child and family mental health.
Although OTs have long been associated with helping adults in the workplace, Heather was one of those who worked with other professionals to support the emotional, sensory and environmental needs of traumatized children through the use of play-based therapy.
Heather worked in leading hospitals in Scotland’s central belt for the better part of twenty years. She later moved to the academic field, where she lectured at her alma mater, Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh, for 25 years and became an advocate for applying psychoanalytic thinking to occupational therapy.
In 2005, she was appointed to the Mental Health Tribunal for Scotland, which hears applications for and appeals against mandatory treatment orders. She fulfilled that role until her death.
Heather was born in Edinburgh to Iain Crawford, a quantitative surveyor, and his wife Isabella (née Murray), a legal secretary. Heather attended James Gillespie High School and then Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, where she obtained a degree in Occupational Therapy in 1980.
Her first job was as an occupational therapist in the social work department of Lothian Regional Council (1980-83), after which she spent the next 16 years as a senior OT in hospital settings at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital (1983-90), the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Glasgow (1990-92), St John’s Hospital in Livingston (1992-95) and the Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Edinburgh (1995-99). She worked primarily in mental health units, providing acute services to children and young people.
In the latter of these posts she also began teaching at Queen Margaret, and in 1999 she became a full-time program leader for the occupational therapy course, later also becoming a senior lecturer. Along the way, she earned a master’s degree and a doctorate through part-time study.
Heather is a clear thinker with big ideas and teaches her students with imagination and rigor. Always stylishly dressed in a punky aesthetic, with red lipstick and black Dr. Marten boots, she cut a bodacious figure wherever she went, whether walking the corridors of NHS hospitals or academic institutions. A mischievous smile regularly appeared in her eyes and she had an infectious laugh.
She is survived by her husband Craig Hunter, whom she married in 1991, their children Murray and Marsali, her mother and her sister Gillian.