History of Occupational Therapy

Question 1

4 important movements that happened in the 1900s

Answer 1

1. Mental Hygiene Movement (and Moral Treatment Era)
2. Arts and Crafts Movement
3. Settlement House Movement
4. Educational Reform

Question 2

Mental Hygiene Movement

Answer 2

• Moral Treatment Era ideas, –> treated patients rather than shunning or punishing them
• Gave them activities to keep them occupied –> less need for restraints
• Financial gain from having patients engage in work (e.g. potato farming)

Question 3

Arts & Crafts Movement

Answer 3

• emerged during the industrial revolution
• spiritual malaise helped by creativity and engaging in art and beauty
• social reform needed (e.g. factory workers)
• craftwork promoted by charitable and artistic (women’s) groups
• skills for self-sufficiency taught (e.g., weave material for clothing; make items for sale)
• fine arts used at Retreats for stress-related illnesses

Question 4

Settlement House Movement

Answer 4

• emerged due to large influx of immigrants coming to Canada
• didn’t have the infrastructure, resources or programming to accommodate so many new people so poverty, unemployment, poor sanitation and overcrowding was common
• skills for daily living taught by the educated/wealthy class to the poor and to immigrant groups
• public health measures
• craftwork helped immigrants adjust, regain confidence

Question 5

Educational Refrorm

Answer 5

• advocated for alternative ways of learning and looking into what ways adults and children learn best i.e. learning by doing
• Manual Training in public schools
• Technical education in high schools
• craft work promotes many learning skills

Question 6

Origin of Occupational Therapy

Answer 6

• “Curing by means of work” = occupational therapy. 1912 Dr. George Barton, Chicago.
• “It was necessary that it be interesting work and it was essential that it should be directed toward some desirable objective, an objectivesecondary to the primary purpose of healing” (Dunlop, 1933, p. 6)
• Eleanor Clarke Slagle founded the first training course in Chicago in 1914

Question 7

OT in WWI (1915/1916)

Answer 7

• Increased numbers of wounded; severity of injuries
• economic threat to Canada if dependent
• need for activity during lengthy convalescence
• women’s works of benevolence (believed to be innately nurturing and the best caregivers)
• Public sympathy
• VolunteerWard Aides provide “Bedside Occupations” in Military Hospitals and Convalescent Homes to build morale

Question 8

OT in WWI (1916/1917)

Answer 8

• Craft activities offered at the bedside, off ward, and in workshops
• Many visitors from US and abroad come to see the work in Canada
• (US) National Society for the Promotion of Occupational Therapy founded March, 1917
• Crafts natural for the times (e.g., trench art)
• crafts as precursor to vocational rehab
• US preparing to enter WWI (April 4 1917) –needs advice
• physicians’ belief in value of OT in peace-time

Question 9

War-Aides

Answer 9

AKA charming women caregivers - provided injured soldiers with occupations at the bedside, off-ward, and in the workshop

Question 10

War time premise for OT

Answer 10

• Restore the spirit
• Raise morale
• Build self-esteem
• Teach skills to decrease dependence
• Support re-integration to family life
• Support the economy through return to work

Question 11

OT in WWI (1918)

Answer 11

• changing roles for women (war work)
• suffrage movement/first wave feminism
• demand for more and better-trained ward aides; no longer volunteer work
• Department of Soldiers’ Civil Re-establishment (SCR) provides courses to train women in “occupational therapy” at U of T 1918-1919
• one course at McGill in 1919

Question 12

OT after WWI

Answer 12

• Need to survive as a profession; belief in services for civilians;
• NSPOT formed; US hiring Cdnward aides
• Support from OT branch societies and physicians’
• press coverage
• OSOT’s Advisory Board
• OTs in Ontario and Manitoba organize
• OSOT receives charter 1921
• 1926: OT Diploma course at U of T
• other Cdnuniversities from 1950 onward
• CAOT founded, 1926

Question 13

OT post-WWII

Answer 13

• Focus on rehabilitation of injured and disabled WWII veterans
• Push of medical model on occupational therapy-focus on pathology, prescriptive treatments
• “Reductionist focus on physical illness and injury” (medical model)
• Aligns with physiotherapy (combined degree)
• Adaptive equipment, assistive technologies

Question 14

OT from then to now

Answer 14

• A push to reconnect to come of the origins of OT
• Client centred practice
• Biopsychosocial-spiritual
• Evidence-based practice, scholarly practitioners
• Social justice
• Occupation
• Critical appraisal

Question 15

Enduring values, ongoing challenges and opportunities

Answer 15

• Helping and Compassion
• Social and Occupational Justice
• Holistic Approach
• OT in the Community and Return to Work
• Importance of Interpersonal Relationships
• Prevention and Health Promotion
• OT Role in Expanding the Medical Model