BackgroundRefugees encounter texts such as course books, pamphlets and exams during mandatory integration in the Netherlands. Texts present explicit or implicit messages to refugees on “successful” integration and citizenship.The What’s the Problem Represented to Be? (WPR) approach from Carol Bacchi, allows us to understand how texts are a presentation of governments see problems, and what is needing to be fixed. Applying an occupational lens facilitates identification of occupations promoted as desirable or discouraged towards those striving for citizenship.Relevance:Discourse in integration programs can be considered as a tool of governance, aiming to promote “acceptable” everyday occupations during the transition to citizenship.Aim:This presentation aims to present findings of an initial analysis for discussion. The main aim of the research project, is to explore the impact of differing discourses in integration programs in the Netherlands, including government and citizen programs, to understand the consequences of these discourses on the lives of refugees.Identify Gaps: This research addresses important gaps in current integration research. Firstly, this research focuses on texts in practice, while previous research has largely focused on the policy texts. Secondly, this research program will focus on not only government integration programs, but also those who are being initiated and facilitated by citizens in the Netherlands’.Theoretical Foundation:Theoretical approach inspired by Foucault governmentality. Critical analysis of discourse in texts is informed by Bacchi’s WPR approach. Concept of citizenship will be framed with Isin’s concept of acts of citizenship. Theories from occupational science, such as occupational possibilities, will facilitating understanding of how occupations are promoted in practice.Conclusion:Textual documents, utilized in practice, are important to include when exploring the relationship between discourse and everyday doing. It is important to consider discourse as a tool of governance and how it impacts on the occupational engagement of refugees.
Participation in everyday occupations influences people's health and well-being. To enable individuals to do the activities they want and need to do is the main concern of occupational therapy practice. Many daily occupations are universal, but they also depend on culture. The development of the Activity Card Sort in eight countries has offered the opportunity to describe occupations across cultures. In the developmental process of culturally relevant versions of the Activity Card Sort by occupational therapists in each country, the instrument versions included samples of older adults (N = 468). These data are used in the current description with the aim of identifying central activities across cultures and central activities for Asian and Western cultures. Te n activities were identified as being central across cultures (i.e., more than half of the older adults in all eight countries performed them). They were the following: shopping in a store, doing grocery shopping, doing dishes, doing laundry, reading books or magazines, sitting and thinking, watching television, listening to radio or music, visiting with friends and relatives, and talking on the telephone. Further, 16 additional activities central to Asian culture and 18 activities central to Western culture were identified. The identification of central activities deepens knowledge of activities with cultural significance. This knowledge is needed in clinical practice and multicultural research. This description provides a starting point for further exploration of everyday occupations among older adults.
Introduction:Community development approaches are increasingly used by occupational therapists in response to occupational justice theory, which posits that both individuals and community groups may be denied access to meaningful occupations through societal powers outside their control. Previous research has found that occupational therapists feel insufficiently prepared for a role in community development and tend to use their general skill set, sometimes in combination with generic community development approaches. This study explored whether the reflective framework for community development in occupational therapy is applicable and useful for occupational therapists in the United Kingdom.Methods:A mixed methods approach was used, combining an online questionnaire and focus groups with occupational therapists who already work in community development. Findings were compared with the framework.Findings:The participants recognised most aspects of the Framework in their own practice, but some key aspects such as collaboration with the community at every stage were less prominent. They found the framework applicable to the UK context, particularly for occupational therapists inexperienced in community development practice.Conclusion:This study has highlighted community development practice by occupational therapists in the United Kingdom and concluded that the framework would support them in fulfilling this role more effectively.
Dutch society faces major future challenges putting populations’ health and wellbeing at risk. An ageing population, increase of chronic diseases, multimorbidity and loneliness lead to more complex healthcare demands and needs and costs are increasing rapidly. Urban areas like Amsterdam have to meet specific challenges of a growing and super divers population often with a migration background. The bachelor programs and the relating research groups of social work and occupational therapy at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences innovate their curricula and practice-oriented research by multidisciplinary and cross-domain approaches. Their Centres of Expertise foster interprofessional research and educational innovation on the topics of healthy ageing, participation, daily occupations, positive health, proximity, community connectedness and urban innovation in a social context. By focusing on senior citizens’ lives and by organizing care in peoples own living environment. Together with their networks, this project aims to develop an innovative health promotion program and contribute to the government missions to promote a healthy and inclusive society. Collaboration with stakeholders in practice based on their urgent needs has priority in the context of increasing responsibilities of local governments and communities. Moreover, the government has recently defined social base as being the combination of citizen initiatives, volunteer organizations , caregivers support, professional organizations and support of vulnerable groups. Kraktie Foundations is a community based ethno-cultural organization in south east Amsterdam that seeks to research and expand their informal services to connect with and build with professional care organizations. Their aim coincides with this project proposal: promoting health and wellbeing of senior citizens by combining intervention, participatory research and educational perspectives from social work, occupational therapy and hidden voluntary social work. With a boundary crossing innovation of participatory health research, education and Kraktie’s work in the community we co-create, change and innovate towards sustainable interventions with impact.
