A few weeks ago now, I was reading a letter in The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy.

Powers Dirette, Diane Ph.D., OTL (2013) “Letter from the Editor: Let’s Talk about Function,”The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy: Vol. 1: Iss. 3, Article 1.  Available at: http://scholarworks.wmich.edu/ojot/vol1/iss3/1

In this letter Powers Dirette gives a brief outline of the use of the terms ‘function’ and ‘occupation’ in Occupational Therapy and non Occupational Therapy literature.  Powers Dirette suggests that ”by using the term function, other professions have provided the public with an understanding of the importance of their services to their everyday lives”.

This leads to Powers Dirette to suggesting that ”we need to make it clear through our oral and written communication that we do address function as a core concept in OT. Not only should we publish articles that use the term function, but we should be publishing guidelines for practice that detail how we use function in treatment and how we produce functional outcomes. We should also publish research that supports the validity and effectiveness of the functional evaluations and treatments that are detailed in those guidelines for practice”.

I look forward to discussing this with the #Occhat community.