Organisational Change and Occupational Therapy

Abstract

Major restructuring of health care services has meant changes in service delivery, organisational structures and work practices. There has been a significant impact on the roles and responsibilities required of health care professionals in the current health care environment. The literature reveals that this often brings about conflict between professional values and organisational values. Although many of the current changes in health care are compatible with the philosophy of occupational therapy, there are policy and organisational factors that have an impact on occupational therapy practice and service delivery. In this article, the emerging characteristics of the contemporary health care environment are identified and the strengths and weaknesses of the profession in adapting to this environment are discussed. It is argued that the survival and growth of the profession are dependent on the extent to which it is able to capitalise on strengths, overcome weaknesses, articulate its overall purpose and function and redefine its role and scope of practice in order to meet changed societal and organisational demands.

Cultural influences on occupational therapy practice in Singapore: a pilot study

“…This situation in which occupational therapists were torn between providing holistic care versus cost-effective care was also prevalent in the Western healthcare system and has been well documented in the literature (Finlay, 2001;Fleming and Mattingly, 1994;Goren, 2002;Lloyd and King, 2002). It appeared that an occupational therapy approach that emphasized the client's occupational performance in the context of the family and community environment required an investment of time.…”

“…To address the potential conflict between organizational demands on the economics of care and holistic occupational therapy practice, the researchers support the Lloyd and King (2002) proposition that practitioners should increase their understanding of social policy, be comfortable in articulating their skills to various stakeholders and define their own role and scope of practice in order Practitioners can also explore the use of innovative packaging of occupational therapy services. For example, in the area of hand rehabilitation where clients may be charged for modalities of treatment, a 'Colles fracture' package may be sold to the client in that payment includes modalities as well as occupation-based treatments.…”

The axiological ontology of occupational therapy: A philosophical analysis

“…The majority of the profession's values statements were compiled from an overview of documents (9,12), researcher opinions (1,11,13,15,16,31), official documents from professional associations (4-7) or leading scholars (8,14). Several authors use existing values statements to substantiate their arguments (2,17,19,(32)(33)(34)(35)(36)(37)(38)(39)(40), despite the absence of empirical justification. For example, McClain (2) draws on West's statement of values (15); Thibeault and Hébert (17), and Davis (33) refer to Townsend and Polatajko (14); and Evert (34), Jacobs and Jacobs (19), Punwar and Peloquin (38), and Reed and Sanderson (39) defer to the AOTA (4).…”

“…The third group, which includes a larger number of authors, adopts a mixed approach. These authors list or describe, more or less exhaustively, the specific and general values that characterize the profession (2,3,5,(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(31)(32)(33)35,36,40). Since this group follows an approach that combines specific and generalist methods, their work is comparable with that of the two first groups.…”

Reliability of the Australian Therapy Outcome Measures for Occupational Therapy Self‐care scale

“…Demonstrating change in client function provides data that can be used to attribute outcomes to intervention (Foto, 1996;Law & Baum, 1998;Lloyd & King, 2002). It is important for occupational therapists to demonstrate that intervention is cost-effective and provides positive outcomes for clients (Fricke, 1993).…”