Historical roots of occupational therapy: It is easy to forget

To paraphrase J.R.R. Tolkien...History became legend, legend became myth – and some things that should not have been forgotten … were lost.In Glen Gillen's Slagle lecture at the 2013 AOTA conference he stated "We need to reclaim what we do..."  This is not the first time that there has been a call back to our roots - we periodically re-visit this theme in occupational therapy.  In order for us to develop a plan to 'reclaim what we do' we need to KNOW what we did.  And why we did it.  And what set us on the path to begin with.In a previous entry in this series I showed how Dr. Licht went searching for some of that history.  After receiving a response from Mayor Copeland, Dr. Licht felt like he had struck a gold mine of historical information that he did not previously have:Also, as Dr. Licht had receipt of contact information for Isabel (Newton) Barton, he quickly sent her out a letter as well, eager to learn as much as he could about that early history.  I have no record of other correspondence between Dr. Licht and Mrs. Barton, so it is difficult to know how Mrs. Barton came to write her own article in 1968 or indeed how she came to attend the 50 year celebration of the profession's founding in Clifton Springs and dedication of the plaque in front of Consolation House.  I don't know if she was prompted to re-engage by Dr. Licht's correspondence or if she was contacted separately by others; that story may be buried ...
Source: ABC Therapeutics Occupational Therapy Weblog - Category: Occupational Therapists Tags: history Source Type: blogs