A Fourth of July message for the occupational therapy profession

I write this second installment regarding public health in an attempt to document the pathway that the occupational therapy profession has taken with regard to its perspective on client autonomy, client-centered occupational therapy practice, and now calls to move toward public health models of intervention.An analysis of this topic can correctly start all the way back to the founding of the profession - including conversations about the musings of George Barton as he convalesced from tuberculosis - but for purposes of controlling the length and depth of the analysis I feel comfortable restricting the conversation to what I will label as the modern period, beginning in the 1960s.  It is during the 1960s that important leaders and theorists promoted a return to the philosophical roots of the profession and a re-focus on occupation and habits which functionally reflects a respect for our philosophical core.There is too much volume of material to be absolutely complete so I will pick pertinent issues that I hope will fairly illustrate and document the footsteps.A modern analysis can begin with acknowledging Mary Reilly's Slagle lecture.  Everyone knows the famous quote from that lecture so I won't use it because I think that we have become numbed by seeing it so much.  Instead I want to bring attention to what she says AFTER that quote.  She states that the central idea of occupational therapy falls into a class of ideas that is so great that it advances civi...
Source: ABC Therapeutics Occupational Therapy Weblog - Category: Occupational Therapists Tags: OT Education philosophy OT practice Source Type: blogs