Early Perspectives of Patients, Practice and the Profession

Abstract

This article draws on an analysis of the British Journal of Occupational Therapy and texts published in England from 1938 to 1951 to describe the ways in which early British occupational therapists perceived themselves and their practice. To give context, the impact of World War II, the medical advances of the time and the profession's overarching goals are outlined. Three themes are presented. First, therapists' use of craft activities, the knowledge that they held about the therapeutic application of craft and the demands of using craft activities in hospital environments are described. The therapists' efforts to articulate a theory base and to demonstrate the efficacy of occupational therapy are the second and third themes. The analysis reveals the circumstances that brought about a shift from craft activities to rehabilitation and workplace technologies, and how the diversional activities that characterised practice in mental health and long-stay physical settings lost ground to remedial and vocational outcomes.