One of my strong beliefs has always been that there should be “open doors” between occupational education, practice, and research. Sincere collaboration always pays off in the end, for everyone, including the persons receiving the services of occupational therapy. In this number of Scandinavian Journal of Occupational Therapy we can take part of an educational initiative at the University College Lillebaelt in Denmark building up a framework in which research-based change in occupational therapy practice were pursued through students' practice research. We can also learn from a study where Swedish occupational therapists in collaboration with a researcher integrated a new intervention programme within a RCT pilot study. The occupational therapists took part in lectures, discussions, and read articles during the implementation, and findings showed that there was a process of change in the occupational therapists' ways of integrating research in their clinical practice.
Handling everyday activities together with functioning limitations can be a challenge for the persons subjected to them as well as for the professionals striving to support the persons' improvements. We have the opportunity to take part of occupational therapists' experiences of rehabilitation of patients with limited awareness after stroke, where avoiding unnecessary risks; make realistic decisions; and independent living were some of the objectives. We can also read about how persons with an acquired brain injury managed the everyday technology that they needed to use in their workplace and how this use influenced their opportunities to work. The results revealed discrepancies between the persons'ability to use the technology and the demands the technology imposed of them in their work setting.
In a study of how adults with ADHD engaged in and performed everyday activities we can learn how important inspiration, facilitating support, and feelings of togetherness with other people were for them in finding strategies to become more independent in their accomplishments. In another study of people with Alzheimer's disease remaining in ordinary housing, we are introduced to how they performed the ordinary outside-home activity of grocery shopping and how they faced problematic situations and critical incidents that took place during the way.In another note we can take part of the translation and adaptationof the Loewenstein Occupational Therapy Cognitive Assessment 2[sup]nd[/sup] Edition (LOTCA-II) to Danish. Still there is some research to do regarding reliability and validity before it can be implemented in clinical practice.
That people with pain have a wide range of occupational problems and gender-specific needs is concluded in a study of everyday problems, assessed with the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (COPM). The most frequent specific occupational problems reported were working, sitting, and cleaning the house. Occupations related to productivity were significantly more reported by women, and self-care occupations by men. And at last an Italian study, where a comparison of the views of patients and occupational therapists on the patient's satisfaction for quality of life, was conducted with the Satisfaction Profile Questionnaire (SAT-P). Even if the results showed similarities in the different perspectives, a significant difference between the therapists' and the patients'views regarding physical and social functioning was found.