ABC Therapeutics Occupational Therapy Weblog

I support free market capitalism, and respect ownership rights people have in the money they have earned through voluntary trade.  Since the money belongs to them they should be able to spend it or give it away at their own discretion. This week we all learned that the University of Southern California Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy received a $20 million gift from the Chan family.  The gift creates the first named and endowed occupational therapy program in the nation, according to the school's website. The article states that USC is a pioneer in occupational science and occupational therapy.  An interesting feature of occupational science is that it purports to be an interdisciplinary field that is intended to inform the occupational therapy profession by providing basic research knowledge about the occupational nature of human behavior. Since the inception of this 'new science,' several scholars have pursued studies relating to the soci...

 Over the course of the last several years an important professional debate about social justice has been occurring in the occupational therapy profession. That actual debate started innocently by a student who posted a question in the Public Forums on OT Connections who was interested in conversation about an RA motion to remove Social Justice from the AOTA Code of Ethics.  That student disagreed, stating that she did not think that Social Justice represented a single political philosophy and that it should not be removed. Some leaders in the occupational therapy community voiced their support of the student's position, stating that social justice is not reflective of a singular political ideology and should not be re-framed as such.  There was near immediate disagreement, with other AOTA members expressing that it does represent a single political ideology. The basis of the eventual RA vote that supported inclusion of Social Justice was made on the questionable p...