Occupational therapists prevent dysfunction and maintain and restore function for people with HIV/AIDS in the areas of work, selfcare and play/leisure. These occupational areas are assessed and treated from psychosocial, physical and environmental perspectives. This article examines occupational therapy assessment and treatment for people with HIV/AIDS with the primary focus on adaptive equipme...

The American Journal of Occupational Therapy 529 The changing health care environment has led to an expansion of pediatric health care services tow a rd m o re community-based, family-centered, teambased, and culturally re l e vant early intervention and schoolbased programs (Schaaf, Mi l l e r, & Bu rke, 1995). Mo re than one third of all occupational therapists practice in pediatric occupatio...

Susan H. Lin, ScD, OTR/L, is Director of Research, American Occupational Therapy Association, 4720 Montgomery Lane, Suite 200, Bethesda, MD 20814-3449; [email protected] Many occupational therapy practitioners enter the profession to help improve people’s lives, but how do we know that our treatments work? The answer lies not with techniques and modalities; instead, our treatments work because of t...

T he occupational therapy specialcy area of school practice was relatively unknown before 1975 when the Education ofAll Handicapped Children Act (Public Law 94-142) was enacted. School practice consisted of a few therapists working primarily in special schools for children with orthopedic impairments, mental retardation, and blindness or deafness. These facilities were usuaJly residential insti...

According to the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA), occupational therapies may be used to treat children with birth injuries or birth defects, sensory processing/integrative disorders, traumatic injuries (brain or spinal cord), learning problems, autism and pervasive developmental disorders, mental health or behavioral problems, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and...

The procedures that may be useful therapeutically are without number, the only limitation being the specific need of the individual patient, from both the psychological and physiological viewpoints. The active interest and co-operation of the patient is a great help, and in the early stages every effort to arouse these should be made. Although stress is placed upon the individual needs of each ...

The American Journal of Occupational Therapy 537 The article, “Occupational T h e r a p i s t s’ Pe rceptions of Ev i d e n c e Based Practice,” by Dubouloz, Eg a n , Vallerand, and von Zweck, in this month’s issue of T h e American Jo u rnal of Occupational T h e ra py (A J OT®), is p e rfect for kicking off a new commentary on evidencebased practice in occupational therapy. As Associate Ed i ...

There are many unanswered questions about the concept of spirituality and its relationship to occupational performance. The role of occupational therapists in addressing clients' spiritual needs is unclear, and the inclusion of spirituality as a topic in the educational curricula of occupational therapy students requires further attention. Focus groups and surveys were used in this phenomenolog...