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Enabling occupation in the 21st Century: Making good intentions a reality
Author(s) -
Townsend Elizabeth
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
australian occupational therapy journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.595
H-Index - 44
eISSN - 1440-1630
pISSN - 0045-0766
DOI - 10.1046/j.1440-1630.1999.00198.x
Subject(s) - occupational therapy , occupational science , george (robot) , ethnography , perspective (graphical) , presentation (obstetrics) , public relations , townsend , mental health , economic justice , psychology , sociology , nursing , medical education , medicine , political science , psychotherapist , history , visual arts , art , law , psychiatry , physics , radiology , quantum mechanics , anthropology , art history
Occupational therapists intend to collaborate with individuals, groups, agencies, and organizations in their search for meaningful occupations to promote health and justice. Since the 1997 publication of Enabling Occupation: An Occupational Therapy Perspective, Canada’s latest guidelines on client‐centred practice, the author has interwoven her ethnographic research in mental health services and client‐centred practice to raise awareness of disjunctures between intentions and actual practice. Her 1999 Keynote Presentation at OT Australia’s 20th National Conference in Canberra offers stories of George and Martha as allegories of the potential for enabling occupation in the 21st century. George presents a story of enabling occupation directly with people in need; Martha’s story is about organizing services for enabling occupation. Through these stories, Dr Townsend calls occupational therapists to develop the language, organization and practice needed to make the profession’s good intentions a reality in the 21st century.