British Journal of Occupational Therapy

Philp (2003) outlined the fundamental role that occupational therapists could have in implementing the National Service Framework (NSF) for Older People and reforming services for older people (Department of Health 2001). A research project was undertaken, which aimed to investigate the views of occupational therapists about the implementation of the policy in order to identify the key areas and issues that have had an impact on practice. The research design was qualitative and took the form of focus groups.

The focus group data were analysed using a long-table analysis method (Krueger and Casey 2000), which identified five key themes: a raised profile of older people's services, a changing delivery of services, a revisiting of occupational therapy core skills, assessment and resource allocation. The emerging themes suggested that the NSF for Older People has had an impact on the practice of the occupational therapists involved in the focus groups.

The purpose of the study was to explore the prevocational needs of adolescents with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) from the perspective of occupational therapists and to examine the role of occupational therapy in addressing these. A questionnaire was distributed to members of occupational therapy organisations (n = 494) to assess the perceived importance of addressing prevocational issues for adolescents with JIA and the respondents' knowledge, confidence and perceived role. The questionnaire was completed by 175 (35.4%) individuals.

The results showed that although the occupational therapists felt that they were an appropriate profession to address the vocational needs of adolescents, they reported limited knowledge and confidence to do so. Significant unmet training needs were highlighted. This study echoes previous calls for vocational issues to be addressed within adolescent rheumatology and provides evidence that occupational therapy is well placed to coordinate this area of need.

This study investigated the playfulness of 24 children with autistic disorder (AD) and 34 typically developing children aged 3–7 years, in free (unstructured) and adult-facilitated (structured) play conditions within a clinical play environment. Video recordings of play were rated using the Test of Playfulness (Bundy 2003). The data were analysed using repeated measures ANOVA and ANCOVA and qualitative observations.

The children with AD were less playful compared with the typically developing children (F = 49.64, p<0.001), even when developmental age was accounted for (F = 28.20, p<0.001). Both groups of children were slightly more playful in a structured environment with adult facilitation (F = 7.72, p = 0.007). Despite statistically significant differences in playfulness between play conditions, considerable overlap in observations for both groups suggests that this may not be as clinically meaningful. When developmental age was accounted for, the play conditions no longer had a significant effect on playfulness (F = 1.54, p = 0.220). The implications of the findings and the limitations of the study are discussed.

This article presents findings from a qualitative study of six occupational therapists in the first year of their career, with a focus on the experience of transition and how beginning practitioners learn about doing practice. An initial interview was conducted with each participant in the third to fifth months of practice. The participants then maintained a journal for one month. A second interview was held with each participant in the eighth to tenth months of practice, which explored the learning experiences documented in the journals and changes in knowledge and skills since beginning practice.

The transitional experiences of the participants revealed that they were challenged by their limited practical experience, the responsibilities of client care, system issues and role uncertainty. The support of colleagues and peers was critical to their learning and eased their adjustment from student to occupational therapist. The relationship with clients was particularly valuable to the participants' learning and professional identity. Recommendations to bridge academic and clinical settings and ease the transition from student to therapist are proposed.

The increased availability of electronic assistive technologies, particularly tagging and tracking technology, raises questions for occupational therapists working in dementia care. As experts in environmental adaptation to support participation, occupational therapists need to be clear about what technologies are available to address wandering behaviour, how emerging technologies could be used in their practice and how they will respond proactively to the ethical issues involved in these technologies. Occupational therapists need to join the national debate in order to ensure that ethical, person-centred practice is used to reduce the risk of big brother style monitoring and to support the independent functioning of their service users.

The pharmaceutical industry was first licensed to produce acetyl cholinesterase inhibitors (ACIs) in April 1997. The current popularity of this intervention is due to its key aim to treat the symptoms of early to moderate stage dementia. Recent evidence has shown that the therapeutic intervention cognitive stimulation therapy (CST) is comparable to intervention with ACIs. The results of a randomised controlled trial of a CST programme allowed the size of its effects to be compared with published data from trials of the major dementia drugs. This opinion piece directs the spotlight onto CST, describing it and its recent clinical evidence, and asks the question: why have occupational therapists not been more engaged in developing and using such interventions?