Prior to studying Occupational Therapy, Kashiefa completed a BSocSc degree from UCT with majors in Psychology and Industrial Sociology. Her passion for wanting to assist patients with optimizing their functional independence resulted in the completion of her BSc (Hons) OT from UWC (2009). She completed her community service at Groote Schuur Hospital (GSH) followed by permanent employment at GSH primarily in neurosurgery but including internal medicine, and neurology. Kashiefa supervises and lectures UCT students on cognition and perception. She has also presented courses to both physiotherapists and Occupational therapists. Volunteers from the brain injury trust have also been trained by her.

In 2017 she presented at the international neurosurgical conference held in South Africa. This was followed by a presentation in 2019 at the World Federation of Neurosurgeons special conference in Beijing. In March 2020 Kashiefa was appointed a member of the WHO development group for Traumatic Brain Injury where she is currently assisting with developing protocols for TBI patients.

Kashiefa is passionate about providing a client-centered, holistic approach to patient care. Rehabilitation aims to improve physical, cognitive and psychological wellbeing through the engagement in meaningful and purposeful occupations. She loves being an Occupational therapist as she feels that through the engagement in occupations that are valued by us, we become who we are. Being an Occupational therapist has allowed her to facilitate improvement in function post injury. She is passionate about providing an efficient and effective OT service that is client-centered.

Clinical Focus
• Individual rehabilitation for physical and cognitive deficits in order to improve functional independence.
• Assessment and retraining of normal, functional movement.
• Assessment and treatment of hand function.
• Assessment and treatment of perceptual deficits, specifically hemineglect, spatial relations, apraxia, figure-ground perception and position in space.
• Patient, family and caregiver education and support to improve the understanding of the level of functioning abilities and facilitation in occupational performance.
• Wheelchair assessment to improve functional mobility.
• Driving Assessment post-injury to establish whether a client is safe to be driving post-injury.
• Return to work screening and rehabilitation to facilitate return in either current capacity or reasonable accommodation.
• Case management.
• Assistive device assessment and training to improve independence in everyday occupational performance.
• Splinting assessment.
• Development of home programs to continue improving function.