Arguments in Occupational Therapy

CULTURAL AWARENESS IN OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY

While searching for a scholarly article about arguments in occupational therapy, I came across an interesting article published in The British Journal of Occupational Therapy called "Cultural Awareness in Occupational Therapy: The Chinese Example." In this article, Katherine Hopton and Helen Stoneley found that in a comparison of Chinese culture and occupational therapy philosphy, occupational therapy in the United Kingdom was influenced by the Western health care system that it developed in. Hopton and Stoneley talk about the importance of occupational therapists being culturally aware, and state that this importance is due to the idea that key concepts and terms used in everyday practice of occupational therapy may not be "culturally generalizable." 

Through my research so far, one of the main ideas I have learned about occupational therapy is that different patients have different needs, and these different needs require different styles of treatment. Because this idea is so important on an individual basis, I can understand how it can also be very important on a cultural basis. Cultures differ in many ways: the food they eat, the morals they value, the jobs they work, etc... A therapist who is not culturally aware may be more susceptible to making their patient feel uncomfortable or simply not providing the most efficient type of therapy for the patients combination of individual and cultural needs. It is an occupational therapist's job to help each patient to live healthiest and most independent life that they can, which would become difficult if the therapist has no knowledge of what their patient's home life consists of. For these reasons, I support Hopton's and Stoneley's views on the importance of cultural awareness in occupational therapy. 

 

WORKS CITED

Hopton, Katherine, and Helen Stoneley. "Cultural Awareness in Occupational Therapy: The Chinese Example." The British Journal of Occupational Therapy 69.8 (2006): 386-9. ProQuest. Web. 16 Mar. 2013.