Comparing and Using Occupation-Focused Models

Abstract

As health care moves toward understanding the importance of function, participation and occupation, occupational therapists would be well served to use occupation-focused theories to guide intervention. Most therapists understand that applying occupation-focused models supports best practice, but many do not routinely use these models. Barriers to application of theory include lack of understanding of the models and limited strategies to select and apply them for maximum client benefit. The aim of this article is to compare occupation-focused models and provide recommendations on how to choose and combine these models in practice; and to provide a systematic approach for integrating occupation-focused models with frames of reference to guide assessment and intervention.

From paper to practice - academics and practitioners working together in enhancing the use of occupational therapy conceptual models

“…Whilst Owen 6 found in her study on South African practitioners that their use of models increased with years of practice; results from other countries indicate that the use of models declines with increased years of practice 19 . An encouraging finding, supported by Elliott, Velde and Wittman 20 and Wong and Fisher 21 , is that although practitioners tend to admit to limited model use, they generally realise its value.…”

Anti-Fat Bias of Occupational Therapy Students

“…These models of practice focus evaluation and interventions on the intersection of person, occupation, and environment to optimize occupational engagement (Cole & Tufano, 2008). However, despite both CMOP-E and MOHO being highly recognized models in the profession (Wong & Fisher, 2015), evidence finds that clinicians view these models as difficult to translate into the demands of many clinical and practice settings (Ikiugu & Smallfield, 2015). Reflecting upon occupational therapists' approaches to intervention design for fat people draw on philosophical discussions of occupational participation as an end versus occupation as a means to improve client factors, and is important in understanding biases of occupational therapists with fat clients (Gray, 1998).…”

“…Options included: 'biomedical; 'biopsychosocial'; 'rehabilitative' frames of reference; CMOP-E; MOHO; PEOP; or 'not sure'. The CMOP-E, MOHO, and PEOP were included as they are identified as the top three occupationbased models in professional curricula (Wong & Fisher, 2015). Occupation-based models are described as foundational to the profession's unique focus on occupation and used to "help explain the relationships among the person, the environment, and occupational performance" (Cole & Tufano, 2008, p. 57).…”

“…This is significant as little literature exists examining the relationship between knowledge or use of occupational-based practice models and provider biases toward stigmatized groups and demands further study. Intuitively this makes sense as these models' assessments and interventions are designed to promote involvement in life roles, the doing and execution of occupation rather than focusing only on reducing or eliminating the underlying impairment (Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists, 2002;Christiansen, Baum, & Bass-Haugen, 2005;Lee, Taylor, Kielhofner, & Fisher, 2008;Wong & Fisher, 2015). Other research findings show that attitudes of students are influenced by exposure and curriculum emphasis on model type (Domenech, Sánchez-Zuriaga, Segura-Ortí, Espejo-Tort, & Lisón, 2011).…”

Utility of the Occupation-Centered Intervention Assessment for Occupational Therapy Level I Fieldwork

“…The development of several occupation-focused models of practice in the 1970s and 1980s led to a resurgence on the focus of occupation as the primary means and end of intervention (Wong and Fisher 2015). Occupational therapy education instructors began to teach the importance of occupation and researchers shifted to examine the effectiveness of the use of occupation as a therapeutic modality.…”