Christine A Mayers

Defining and Assessing Quality of Life

This article is a literature review, undertaken to have a fuller understanding of what is meant by the term ‘quality of life’ and how it is measured or assessed. The literature review shows that the term Is not clearly defined. It is suggested that occupational therapists each have their own definition and may use the term too narrowly: a satisfactory quality of life means something different to all of us, whether we be occupational therapist or client. This suggests that discussion with a client about his/her Individual quality of life and what this means to him/her is probably more realistic than trying to measure aspects of it.

A Philosophy Unique to Occupational Therapy

This article aims to remind occupational therapists of some key aspects of the unique philosophy that should be underpinning our professional practice. It is hoped that the article will encourage therapists to read more about occupational therapy philosophy as there is much being written on the subject in the American Journal of Occupational Therapy and then to discuss the philosophy of their own practice within both department and district. This is particularly important with the health care changes rapidly occurring at this time.

The Casson Memorial Lecture 2000: Reflect on the Past to Shape the Future

The Casson Memorial Lecture 2000, given on 21 July at the 24th Annual Conference of the College of Occupational Therapists, held at the University of Keele.

A Model for Community Occupational Therapy Practice, Stage 1

This article describes the first stage of a client-centred model, being developed by the author, for community occupational therapy practice. The key objective of this stage is to have the client identify his/her needs before the occupational therapist makes the first visit. The tools of the first stage, a contact letter and a Lifestyle Questionnaire, have been used in a pilot study by occupational therapists around the country. A summary of the results of this study is given.

Can Occupational Therapists Be Both Humanists and Christians? A Study of Two Conflicting Frames of Reference

The word ‘humanist’ has been used in textbooks, articles and conference papers to help describe the unique philosophy of occupational therapy. This links in with increasing interest about models of practice and the underlying philosophy of the profession. Humanism is defined in two ways: as it has been used in philosophy, both past and present, and as it is used in current practice in occupational therapy. Reference is made to the conflict which can arise between the beliefs of Christianity and humanism. The authors advise caution in using the word ‘humanism’ as a blanket descriptor of occupational therapy when humanistic practice may conflict with behavioural, developmental or psychodynamic approaches. Humanism is seen as a theory talked and written about in occupational therapy but is seldom seen in practice.

Survey of Occupational Therapy/Occupational Science Research being Undertaken within the European Community

The European Cooperation in Occupational Therapy Research and Occupational Science (ECOTROS) aims to bring together occupational therapists interested in research in order to promote and facilitate international cooperation. In 2005/06, a survey was undertaken to identify the occupational therapists and institutions that were undertaking research in each country in Europe and to discover the topic, range and type of research. Responses to questionnaires were obtained from 113 individuals and information was given about 143 studies being undertaken within 7 countries. The results of the survey state the academic qualifications, work areas and research topics of the participants; the professions of the supervisors; and the sources of the funding.

Practice and Research: Discovering What People Need

I am committed to our profession, to person-centred practice and to undertaking relevant research. Two statements made at the College of Occupational Therapists’ annual conference in Cardiff last year echoed my own thinking. It is to be hoped that we are all seeking: ■ ‘to find out what the client wishes to achieve’ (Graeme Smith in the Casson Memorial Lecture 2006) and ■ ‘new knowledge that informs practice’ (Professor Jenny Butler in her closing address as Chairman of Council).

Reflect on the Past to Shape the Future

We are entering a new millennium and it is a great honour to be invited to give the Casson Memorial Lecture at such a time in our history. At the beginning of this new millennium, maybe we should be asking ourselves again the question that Mary Reilly asked in 1962: ‘Is occupational therapy a sufficiently vital and unique service for medicine to support and society to reward?’ (p1). Certainly, health economists and managers of services are asking this in some quarters. Over nearly 100 years we can see vast changes as our profession has developed but, as I reflect on those years, I have a feeling that there is something nearly circular in all this progression! I will explain this more when I move into the first part of my talk. Let me introduce the theme and the content of this lecture first. There are two main sections which will demonstrate my choice of title: ‘Reflect on the Past to Shape the Future’. First, as we move forward, we should also look back: reflect on what has been good and has guided our development both as individual occupational therapists and as a profession, a group of people, it is hoped, working together with common professional goals. As we do this, it will give us positive indicators for our future individual and group professional development. I am sure that some of my reflections will be similar to yours and I trust that my hopes for our future development will match your hopes and aspirations. Secondly, the users of our service are central to our work as occupational therapists. Our intervention should include time for the user to reflect on his or her past roles, occupations and quality of life before, and since, his or her problems occurred, so that together we can work alongside the user to plan and shape as positive a future as possible for that individual. The second part of the lecture will show how we can apply the important reflections from the first section to our service delivery, with older people being an example of this. These are the two main sections of this lecture. And the word that is central to these two sections and to the thrust of my lecture is ‘occupation’. So let us move on to the first section.

Book Review: Spirituality, Healing and MedicineSPIRITUALITY, HEALING AND MEDICINE. AldridgeDavid. KingsleyJessica, 2000. 224 pp. £14.95. ISBN 1 85302 554 2.

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