Definition
World Federation of Occupational Therapists (WFOT) defines occupational therapy as a “client-centered health profession concerned with promoting health and well being through occupation. The primary goal of occupational therapy is to enable people to participate in the activities of everyday life. Occupational therapists achieve this outcome by working with people and communities to enhance their ability to engage in the occupations they want to, need to, or are expected to do, or by modifying the occupation or the environment to better support their occupational engagement” (World Federation of Occupational Therapists [WFOT], 2010, para. 1)
Description
Occupational therapy, founded in 1917, has become a well-established profession within the areas of health and rehabilitation with over 60 member countries in the WFOT....
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References and Readings
American Occupational Therapy Association. (2005). Occupational therapy code of ethics. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 59, 639–642.
Carey, L. M., & Baum, C. (2011). Occupational therapy. In N. P. Azari (Ed.), Encyclopaedia of sciences and religions. Heidelberg: Springer.
Christiansen, C. (1999). Defining lives: Occupation as identity: An essay on competence, coherence, and the creation of meaning. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 53, 547–558.
Christiansen, C., Baum, C. M., & Bass-Haugen, J. (2005). Occupational therapy: Performance, participation, and well-being (3rd ed.). Thorofare, NJ: SLACK.
Clark, F., Azen, S. P., Zemke, R., Jackson, J., Carlson, M., Mandel, D., et al. (1997). Occupational therapy for independent-living older adults: A randomized controlled trial. Journal of the American Medical Association, 278, 1321–1326.
Eriksson, G., Kottorp, A., Borg, J., & Tham, K. (2009). Relationship between occupational gaps in everyday life, depressive mood and life satisfaction after acquired brain injury. Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine, 41, 187–194.
Glass, T. A., de Leon, C., Marottoli, R. A., & Berkman, L. F. (1999). Population based study of social and productive activities as predictors of survival among elderly Americans. British Medical Journal, 319, 478–483.
Hasselkus, B. (2002). The meaning of everyday occupation. Thorofare, NJ: SLACK.
Herzog, A. R., Franks, M. M., Markus, H. R., & Holmberg, D. (1998). Activities and well-being in older age: Effects of self-concept and educational attainment. Psychology and Aging, 13, 179–185.
Horgas, A. L., Wilms, H., & Baltes, M. M. (1998). Daily life in very old age: Everyday activities as expression of successful living. The Gerontologist, 38, 556–568.
Hultsch, D. E., Hertzog, C., Small, B. J., & Dixon, R. A. (1999). Use it or lose it: Engaged lifestyle as a buffer of cognitive decline in old age? Psychology and Ageing, 14, 245–263.
Kielhofner, G. (2004). Conceptual foundations of occupational therapy (3rd ed.). Philadelphia, PA: F. A. Davis. Authoritative texts on occupational therapy.
Law, M. C., Baum, C. M., & Dunn, W. (2005). Measuring occupational performance: Supporting best practice in occupational therapy (2nd ed.). Thorofare, NJ: SLACK.
Söderback, I. (Ed.). (2009). International handbook of occupational therapy interventions (1st ed., Vol. 1). New York: Springer.
Townsend, E., & Polatajko, H. (2007). Enabling occupation II: Advancing an occupational therapy vision for health, well-being, & justice through occupation. Ottawa, Canada: CAOT Publications ACE. Authoritative texts on occupational therapy.
World Federation of Occupational Therapists. (2010).What is occupational therapy? Retrieved from http://www.wfot.org/information.asp (accessed May 5, 2011).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer Science+Business Media, New York
About this entry
Cite this entry
Baum, C., Carey, L., Polatajko, H.J. (2013). Occupational Therapy. In: Gellman, M.D., Turner, J.R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Behavioral Medicine. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1005-9_905
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1005-9_905
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4419-1004-2
Online ISBN: 978-1-4419-1005-9
eBook Packages: MedicineReference Module Medicine