Occupation, education and community-based rehabilitation

Occupational therapy is rethinking its paradigm of human occupation to take account of the social, political, economic and environmental influences on communities and the effects that these have on opportunities for being and doing. One way of bringing this element into undergraduate curricula may be to develop programmes around community-based rehabilitation (CBR) and human rights. Recent position papers from the World Federation of Occupational Therapists, in combination with occupational justice arguments, may support an orientation of professional thinking towards community needs. Some suggestions are made for the accommodation of CBR perspectives in education, particularly through the development of practice placement opportunities.