Important events and trends for OT in Australia Flashcards
Plot a timeline of events and trends relevant to the development of occupational therapy in Australia.
Aristotle’s (384-322BCE) is probably the most important because of his interest in practical wisdom, learning through doing and the need for purpose in everyday life.
These ideas were used by philosophers, scientists and social reformers in the 1600s-1700s in Europe and Britain to improve and understand the human condition at a time called the ‘enlightenment’.
“For the things we have to learn before we can do, we learn by doing’ (Aristotle, Book II, 1103.a33; cited in: Bynum & Porter (2006), Oxford Dictionary of scientific Quotations, 21:9).
In the late 1700s reforms of many social institutions was needed for Enlightenment concepts to become a reality.
Just before the first prison ‘fleet’ set sail to Australia in 1787 new laws were decreed in 1777 allowing prisoners to have access to water, food, shelter, sunlight, clean air and daily occupations including exercise, work and sometimes schooling.
From 1788 to 1868, 168,000 mostly British convicts were transported to Australia.
1850s Australian gold rush increased prosperity and enabled the expansion of civic infrastructure including roads, hospitals, asylums and schools.
In the 1790s William Tuke provided funds for a new type of Asylum in to be developed in a town called York. Instead of brutal physical treatment, people were treated humanly and were able to live in supervised, supportive and comfortable living conditions. Participation in daily occupations, self reflection and self control thought to bring order to the disordered mind. His ‘Humane treatment’ showed that people with ‘incurable conditions’ could recover.
Australia’s first purpose built asylum opened in 1838 in Sydney and was modelled on the York and Paris Asylum approaches of humane treatment.
“Occupational treatment was the only curative measure of any value in restoring patients to sanity. Dr John O’Brien, 1888 medical superintendent Kew Asylums, Victoria (cited in Westmore and Monk, 2012)
“An effective treatment is a satisfactory method of hastening recovery in both mental and physical cases. Occupational therapy is a definite and proven therapeutic measure having as its advocates a great many members of the medical and surgical professions and practically all mental specialists.” (Howland, 1933, p. 4)
The first dedicated ‘occupational therapist’ job in Australia was funded by the Mental Hospital Auxiliaries at Mont Park Hospital Victoria in 1934.
By the end of the 1930s the pioneers had introduced occupational therapy to the following specialisations (Anderson & Bell, 1988): Physical rehabilitation, paediatric.
In 1940 Francis successfully applied to the Hospital Commission to start an Occupational Therapy course in Australia.
In 1984 a second training course for occupational therapy was opened in Victoria
In 2001 the World Health Organization published a new model of functioning, disability and health (ICF) that embraced a bio-psycho-social approach and recognised social models of disability and social determinants of health (WHO, 2001.)
What similarities and differences do you see in past and present contexts that are relevant to the development of occupational therapy in Australia?
Occupational therapy and the way we deal with patients who have mental/physical disability has changed over time however the patients themselves and the difficulties they face haven’t. With new evidence based scientific research, Occupational therapists constantly learn through multidisciplinary streamed academic practice how to best accommodate their clients’ needs and achieve best Person/s centered practice.
