An occupational therapy international summer school on Minamata disease, occupational justice, and the natural environment

We describe an international summer school on Minamata disease held at Nishikyushu University in September 2011. Funded by the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation, the summer school was titled ‘Occupational justice and the environment: Minamata and beyond’ and was attended by faculty and students from Cardiff, Sheffield Hallam and Nishikyushu Universities. The summer school used problem based learning (PBL) teaching methods to encourage the participating students to think about issues relating to occupational therapy and the social and environmental determinants of health. Here we provide a brief overview and evaluation of this summer school and discuss future directions for this collaborative project.