Occupational Therapy in Neurological Disorders: Looking Ahead to the American Occupational Therapy Association’s Centennial Vision

Abstract

The Centennial Vision articulated by the American Occupational Therapy Association includes moving the profession to being science driven and evidence based. The American Journal of Occupational Therapy contributes to this vision by publishing high-quality research. I reviewed research in the practice area of neurological rehabilitation published between May 2010 and October 2011. In particular, I reviewed effectiveness and efficacy studies, instrument development and testing, and basic research studies. Concerns emerging from the review were (1) few studies in neurological rehabilitation; (2) many disorders not represented; (3) exclusive use of impairment-level outcomes in some studies; and (4) high preponderance of case series designs in effectiveness studies. To achieve the Centennial Vision, the field needs to improve the volume and diversity of research in neurological rehabilitation. It is also important to modify academic and clinical practice to enable occupational therapists to spend more time in producing high-quality evidence to support the crucial role they play in neurological rehabilitation.

Moving Toward 2017: Progress in Rehabilitation Intervention Effectiveness Research

“…Recent reviews of rehabilitation research have called on occupational therapists to increase the volume and quality of research (Rao, 2012); however, in addition to increasing the number and quality of studies conducted, a critical component will be to produce research that focuses on participation, activity, and occupations, the seminal characteristics of our practice, as past rehabilitation reviews have emphasized (Doucet, 2013;Gillen, 2010;Rao, 2012;Wolf, 2011).…”

Five Years Later: Achieving Professional Effectiveness to Move Neurorehabilitation Forward

“…The American Journal of Occupational Therapy is committed to publishing articles that focus on the clinical and researchrelated priorities of the profession, and foremost in this effort are intervention effectiveness studies (Gutman, 2010). Table 1 outlines the number of neurorehabilitationrelated publications identified in the previous three Centennial Vision reviews (Gillen, 2010;Rao, 2012;Wolf, 2011).…”