Occupational therapy and culture: a literature review

Abstract

In its understanding of expressions of culture, occupational therapy stands at a crossroads between traditional and critical approaches. A lack of critical insight into professional knowledge increases the risk that occupational therapy will remain satisfied with the current understanding of culture, based on the dominant knowledge. The discipline could fail to address the political, ethical, and theoretical issues required to reach the targeted diversity in its practice.

Development of a Cultural Awareness Scale for Occupational Therapy Students in Latin America: A Qualitative Delphi Study

“…None of the included items addressed ethnic issues in a specific way. In the ‘professional culture’ category, some of the experts questioned the existence of an occupational therapy culture (Kinébanian and Stomph, ; Castro et al, ). This concern could be based on assumptions connected to universalism as promoted by Western values as well as the conception of a value‐free position for the profession and its core concept, occupation (Hammell, ).…”

“…This definition generated 73 items. These items were derived from the empirically based results of two previous qualitative studies (Castro et al, 2014;Castro, Dahlin-Ivanoff, & Mårtensson, unpublished data). Verification was performed with assessments addressing cultural awareness and cultural competence in health care (D'Andrea et al, 1991;LaFromboise et al, 1991;Cheung et al, 2002;Rew et al, 2003;Suarez-Balcazar et al, 2011;Hook et al, 2013;Rew et al, 2014).…”

“…Culture and occupation are inextricably connected (Kinébanian and Stomph, 2009). Today, occupational therapy views culture as a dynamic and complex phenomenon (Kinébanian and Stomph, 2009;Castro et al, 2014;Beagan, 2015). This understanding means that the professional training and practice of occupational therapists should address local needs in terms of culture (Castro et al, 2014;Beagan, 2015;Guajardo et al, 2015).…”

“…Today, occupational therapy views culture as a dynamic and complex phenomenon (Kinébanian and Stomph, 2009;Castro et al, 2014;Beagan, 2015). This understanding means that the professional training and practice of occupational therapists should address local needs in terms of culture (Castro et al, 2014;Beagan, 2015;Guajardo et al, 2015). For occupational therapists, a lack of awareness of how culture influences occupation can weaken ones professional identity, leading to culturally unsafe practices, ethical concerns and underrated family involvement that could be determining factors in clients' abandonment to therapy services (Murden et al, 2008;Kinébanian and Stomph, 2009;Beagan, 2015).…”

“…Although these two instruments focus in cultural competence and cultural awareness, respectively, they both assume culture is about ethnicity and differences among ethnic groups (Cheung et al, 2002;Suarez-Balcazar et al, 2011). This assumption has been challenged in recent literature, which views culture as a more dynamic and complex phenomenon (Castro et al, 2014;Beagan, 2015).…”