ABC Therapeutics Occupational Therapy Weblog

We want one man to be always thinking, and another to be always working, and we call one a gentleman, and the other an operative; whereas the workman ought often to be thinking, and the thinker often to be working, and both should be gentlemen, in the best sense. As it is, we make both ungentle, the one envying, the other despising, his brother; and the mass of society is made up of morbid thinkers and miserable workers. Now it is only by labour that thought can be made healthy, and only by thought that labour can be made happy, and the two cannot be separated with impunity.   - John Ruskin, The Stones of Venice. 3D printing technology is a new fad that is capturing the attention of occupational therapists.  The technology is disruptive, primarily because of cost factors, but as is often the case there are important considerations lying underneath the alluring new technology. During the Industrial Revolution society developed technological solutions that made mass-prod...

There is an RA Motion for consideration that charges the RA Speaker to appoint an ad hoc committee beginning the summer of 2015 to delineate the role in case management for occupational therapy in primary care and mental health. The link to the full motion is available here:  http://www.aota.org/-/media/Corporate/Files/AboutAOTA/Governance/RA/2015-Spring/3CaseManagement.pdf The rationale for the motion states that "The practice of occupational therapists (OTs) allows for the role of case managers, however, the profession recognizes the need for OTs to better define their role in the new model of care which is primary care and in mental health." I would like to have a discussion about whether or not the core premise behind this rationale is valid.  I believe that someone trained in occupational therapy may have the requisite skills to serve as a case manager, but I am not convinced that the activities of a case manager constitute the practice of occupational t...

Sometimes concepts all just pile on at once. This morning I was putting together some lecture material for a class where I will be discussing contextual factors and why they are important to occupational therapists.  Ironic. Contextual factors are defined as interrelated conditions that are within and surrounding the person.  We generally break them down into personal, cultural, virtual, and temporal categories. The reason why it is ironic is because someone told me today that it is my Dad's anniversary.  Not really.  It is the anniversary of his death - five years ago now.  I never consider that it is his anniversary.  The five years since that event is an important example of temporal context, or maybe it is supposed to be.  Temporal contexts refer to stages of life, times of day or year, duration and rhythms of activity, and even history.  Basically, they provide a backdrop of time for the way that we consider things. I don't always pr...