Occupation

Abstracts
Posters
International Trauma Conference held in Melbourne, Australia
on the use of play therapy (Theraplay ® ) with children/families
and as part of a men’s behavioural change programme. Cat is
passionate about promoting the profession of Occupational
Therapy and education.
Ruth Roberts qualified as an Occupational Therapist in 2010
from Sheffield Hallam University. Since qualifying Ruth has
worked in social services community team providing equipment
and adaptations for people with physical disabilities a locked
rehabilitation unit for men with Learning disabilities who were
detained under the mental health act and is now currently
working in a Community Learning Disabilities Team in
Nottingham. Ruth has been a committee member on the BAOT
Trent Region since 2008. Ruth is also a committee member for
the COT Specialist Section for People with Learning Disabilities.
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Sustainability matters: exploring the WFOT guiding
principles on sustainability
Ikiugu M 1 , Whittaker B 2,3 , Aoyama M 8 , Galvaan R 9 , Hudson
M 8 , K’hlin I 7 , Pollard N 4 , Roschnik S 6 , Shann S 5 ,
University of South Dakota 1 , Sussex Partnership NHS
Foundation Trust 2 , The Centre for Sustainable Healthcare 3 ,
Sheffield Hallam University 4 , Northumbria University 5 ,
Sustainable Development Unit 6 , Linköping University 7 ,
Nishikyushu University 8 , University of Cape Town 9
The environment (context of occupational performance) has
always been a focus for occupational therapists. Recently,
sustainability has been a key topic in occupational therapy
literature and organisations (SAOT 2012 COT 2013) and is
included in the COT Code of Ethics (COT 2015). This trend
follows a wider global awareness of sustainability issues
amongst health professions and governmental organisations.
It is consistent with the recognition that climate change is the
biggest global health threat of the 21 st century (UCL-Lancet
Commission 2009, p.1659), affecting all human populations.
With the WFOT position statement on environmental
sustainability (WFOT 2012), it is timely for the federation to
provide curricula guidelines for the inclusion of sustainability
in occupational therapy education, practice, and scholarship
worldwide. The WFOT guiding principles in ‘Sustainability
Matters’ provide suggestions about incorporating content about
sustainability throughout occupational therapy.
Many professional and scientific disciplines are involved in the
investigation of how people can live sustainably. In developing
the WFOT guiding principles, the vision is that occupational
therapy can join this interdisciplinary effort to promote behaviour
change in the direction of sustainable living, and to ensure
that the current generation does not threaten the survival and
quality of life for future generations (World Commission on
Environment and Development 1987). Occupational therapists
are qualified to contribute meaningfully in this effort since
peoples’ occupational choices and subsequent occupational
behaviours determine the sustainability of their lifestyles.
This poster will explore the background, objectives and
significance of these guiding principles, considering reflective
questions for occupational therapists, educators, students and
associations that are contained within the guiding principles
document.
References
College of Occupational Therapists. (2013). Essential Briefing:
Sustainable Development. London: COT. Available at: www.
cot.co.uk/briefings/sustainable-development Accessed on
20.09.2015.
College of Occupational Therapists. (2015). Code of Ethics and
Professional Conduct. London: COT. Available at: www.cot.
co.uk/publication/baotcot/code-ethics-and-professional-conduct
Accessed on 20.09.2015.
Swedish Association of Occupational Therapists (2012)
Occupational therapy and sustainable development – from a
Swedish perspective.Nacka, Sweden: SAOT.
World Commission on Environment and Development. (1987).
Our common future: Brundtland report. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
World Federation of Occupational Therapists. (2012). Position
statement: Environmental sustainability, sustainable practice
within occupational therapy. Available at http://www.wfot.org/
ResourceCentre.aspx Accessed on 20.09.2015.
Keywords
Occupational therapists, Practice development, International
practice/globalisation, Inter-agency, Education
Contact E-mail Addresses
ben.whittaker@sustainablehealthcare.org.uk
Author Biographies
Moses Ikiugu is professor of occupational therapy and director of
research at the University of South Dakota. He is the American
Occupational Therapy Association delegate to the World
Federation of Occupational Therapists and WFOT project lead on
sustainable occupational therapy pratice.
Ben Whittaker is a senior occupational therapist at Bluebell
House Recovery Support Centre, a specialist service in West
Sussex for people with complex needs and personality disorder.
He is Occupational Therapy Programme Lead at the Centre for
Sustainable Healthcare and has contributed to papers about
sustainability for the College of Occupational Therapists and
World Federation of Occupational Therapists.
References
Arreola R (2000). Developing a comprehensive faculty evaluation
system: A handbook for college faculty and administrators on
designing and operating a comprehensive faculty evaluation
system, 2nd edn, Anker Publishing, Boulton, MA.
American Occupational Therapy Association (2006). Distance
Education Checklist 2006 ACOTE Standards. Available at: http://
www.aota.org/education-careers/accreditation.aspx
Eaton, Judith S. (2009). An overview of U.S. accreditation.
Council for Higher Education Accreditation. Available at: http://
www.chea.org/pdf/2009.06_overview_of_us_accreditation.pdf
Keywords
Occupational therapists, Practice development, Education and
learning, Other
Contact E-mail Addresses
nekrusen@pacificu.edu
Author Biographies
Dr. Krusen is an associate professor in the School of
Occupational Therapy at Pacific University in the USA. Her
interests include the scholarship of teaching and learning,
distance education, qualitative methods of research, and the
constructs of the Occupational Adaptation theoretical frame of
reference.
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