Contemporary occupational therapy practice: The challenges of being evidence based and philosophically congruent
Author(s)
Gustafsson, Louise
Molineux, Matthew
Bennett, Sally
Year published
2014
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
The 20th Century saw the profession of occupational therapy experience a number of changes and transition through a number of stages. A key driver of these changes was the extent to which the concept of occupation waxed and waned in the profession’s consciousness. Occupation is central to the profession’s theory and practice, and yet we have at times, for various reasons, relegated it to the realm of something that was merely interesting. At the same time that the profession was changing and developing, the world in which that was happening was changing, and there was usually a very direct relationship between the two. For ...
View more >The 20th Century saw the profession of occupational therapy experience a number of changes and transition through a number of stages. A key driver of these changes was the extent to which the concept of occupation waxed and waned in the profession’s consciousness. Occupation is central to the profession’s theory and practice, and yet we have at times, for various reasons, relegated it to the realm of something that was merely interesting. At the same time that the profession was changing and developing, the world in which that was happening was changing, and there was usually a very direct relationship between the two. For example, the rise of the power of the medical profession around the middle of the 20th Century and the increasing focus on scientific (at that time, positivistic and reductionist) evidence directly influenced occupational therapy to move away from occupation and concentrate on reductionist approaches to practice (Kielhofner, 2009). There is a view that occupational therapy now finds itself within the Contemporary Paradigm (Kielhofner, 2009). This paradigm, in contrast with the previous paradigm, is focussed sharply on occupation and recognises that humans have an occupational nature and face occupational challenges. However, there is debate as to whether or not the profession truly is within the Contemporary Paradigm (Molineux, 2010). A paradigm, by definition, is a view of the world that is shared by members of the group. In the case of occupational therapy, there is significant anecdotal and published evidence that demonstrates that not all practice is consistent with the Contemporary Paradigm. Nonetheless, it is the case that occupational therapy is attempting to re-engage with occupation as the central organising concept of the profession. In fact, this has been the case for some time now and was referred to in 2000 as the renaissance of occupation (Whiteford, Townsend & Hocking, 2000).
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View more >The 20th Century saw the profession of occupational therapy experience a number of changes and transition through a number of stages. A key driver of these changes was the extent to which the concept of occupation waxed and waned in the profession’s consciousness. Occupation is central to the profession’s theory and practice, and yet we have at times, for various reasons, relegated it to the realm of something that was merely interesting. At the same time that the profession was changing and developing, the world in which that was happening was changing, and there was usually a very direct relationship between the two. For example, the rise of the power of the medical profession around the middle of the 20th Century and the increasing focus on scientific (at that time, positivistic and reductionist) evidence directly influenced occupational therapy to move away from occupation and concentrate on reductionist approaches to practice (Kielhofner, 2009). There is a view that occupational therapy now finds itself within the Contemporary Paradigm (Kielhofner, 2009). This paradigm, in contrast with the previous paradigm, is focussed sharply on occupation and recognises that humans have an occupational nature and face occupational challenges. However, there is debate as to whether or not the profession truly is within the Contemporary Paradigm (Molineux, 2010). A paradigm, by definition, is a view of the world that is shared by members of the group. In the case of occupational therapy, there is significant anecdotal and published evidence that demonstrates that not all practice is consistent with the Contemporary Paradigm. Nonetheless, it is the case that occupational therapy is attempting to re-engage with occupation as the central organising concept of the profession. In fact, this has been the case for some time now and was referred to in 2000 as the renaissance of occupation (Whiteford, Townsend & Hocking, 2000).
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Journal Title
Australian Occupational Therapy Journal
Volume
61
Issue
2
Subject
Clinical sciences
Allied health and rehabilitation science