Professional competencies in vocational rehabilitation: Results of a Delphi study

A survey of occupational therapists' involvement in facilitating self-employment for people with disabilities

“…Eighty-seven responses were received from the 2420 emails forwarded to occupational therapists, at a return rate of 3.6%. The low response may be reflective of the 256 occupational therapists working in vocational rehabilitation identified by Buys (2015) in South Africa 18 . The above therapists are involved in functional capacity assessments and vocational rehabilitation, which focus on return to work and work placement of individuals with disabilities rather than facilitating self-employment.…”

“…Occupational therapists are recognised role players in addressing the occupation of work with their clients 17 . In South Africa, vocational rehabilitation services provide return to work as well as training and reskilling, support groups, guidance and counselling aimed at obtaining a new position in the open labour market or sheltered and protected employment 18 . Challenges within South Africa encourages innovative occupational therapy practice 19 and the profession has a long history of facilitating self-employment for their clients 20 .…”

“…A literature search of South African studies yielded initiatives related to more informal types of employment, including self-employment, and finding or starting stipendiary occupation as an alternative to seeking paid employment 18,28 . Facilitating self-employment was not considered as part of their professional competencies by experts in vocational rehabilitation training for occupational therapists in South Africa, as suggested by Buys in 2015 18 .…”

Screens or MP4s: Acquiring Clinical Competencies Through the Use of e-OSPEs in Occupational Therapy

“…More work is needed to identify an agreed upon list of core clinical competencies across the different occupational therapy programs in South Africa. Like the work done by Buys (2015), such a list should cover the skills needed for practicing in both the private and the public sectors of service delivery.…”

“…Although the assessment of required competencies in occupational therapy generally includes both written and practical examinations, we only reported on some of the cognitive and technical competencies required in the second year of occupational therapy training. While competence has been used as a yardstick against which to measure the quality of a professional's performance and his or her knowledge, skills, and professional values (Buys, 2015), this study focused on the knowledge and skills demonstrated during a pilot online assessment.…”