British Journal of Occupational Therapy

‘Fashion Services for the Disabled’ aims to study the clothing problems of disabled people and to find various means of solving these problems. This article shows how the project began, how it operates today and its hopes and plans for the future.

This article describes a first series of classroom-type reality orientation, set up on a background of 24-hour reality orientation, to assess this treatment technique and to discover organizational problems. It discusses the selection and grouping of patients, the monitoring of progress, and the structure and content of the sessions. The initial, midway, and final assessment scores are shown for each of the three groups of patients. The programme was considered to have been of value to the patients as part of treatment and to staff in highlighting the problems and strengths of the groups. Some general recommendations for such programmes are made.

Hospice care for the terminally ill has in recent years become an interesting and important part of our medical system. The author is an occupational therapist who has been working in a hospice for 13 years. In this article she details the working of the day unit within such a hospice and refers particularly to the contribution that the occupational therapist can make in this setting.

This paper argues that self-care and independence training should have greater prominence within the curriculum of special schools. It advocates coordinated approaches in this area by those working with physically handicapped children and stresses the long-term importance of self-care and independence skills.

While protective appliances may be of considerable value in the management and treatment of self-injurious behaviour, they should be used with caution and only as part of a general behavioural programme. This article describes a variety of equipment which has been found to be useful with individuals who self-injure, in preventing tissue damage during treatment programmes designed to reduce their self-injurious behaviour.