Editorial

Changing times for the WFOT Bulletin

The WFOT Bulletin is the official publication of the World Federation of Occupational Therapists (WFOT). The aims of the WFOT Bulletin are to promote:

awareness and understanding of the WFOT, its activities and services, development of the occupational therapy profession, service models of the occupational therapy profession, education of the occupational therapy profession, perspectives on occupational therapy development, education and practice, which may have regional or global impact, and international and cross-cultural diversity.

As we prepare to transition, the Bulletin from its current form at the end of 2023 after some 65 years of publication, I would like to acknowledge the development of the Bulletin to reflect the World Federation of Occupational Therapists and our profession over that time. Interestingly, we address many of the same professional issues and areas of practice now as we did then, but from the perspective of our global and social times.

The Bulletin offered in 1958, articles from countries around the world on how occupational therapists dealt with a variety of education development and medical concerns. In the first Bulletin, articles were written from Brazil, Switzerland, Argentina, Canada and the United Kingdom.

Changes in emphasis of articles over the years have followed world trends and offer a sense of the wellbeing of the profession and the Federation as it progressed to where we are now in terms of global priorities and changing social values.

To draw on our global profession, the Bulletin developed a Rota system so that all countries could be called on to respond to the theme of the Bulletin issue on a rotational basis. The Bulletin was also produced using WFOT’s four official languages: English, French, German and Spanish in a two-yearly rotation. The articles in Spanish were prolific and always filled their quota. The editor was able to call on the delegates of each country listed in through a Rota to send articles and case studies which represented the emphasis of the profession in their countries on that subject at that time.

And times have changed. Over the decades, the global profession has recognised the need for producing their own national journals and newsletters/magazines usually in the language of their country. More material is now online and as with the Bulletin over that last several years, journals are published digitally. There are now many more national occupational therapy journals providing the opportunity for occupational therapy authors around the world to submit manuscripts to them.

The WFOT’s focus of global communication is evolving and thus the Bulletin with its original aims for global information sharing is making way for the many channels available to us. Look for WFOT on the WFOT website (www.wfot.org), Facebook (World Federation of Occupational Therapists), Twitter, Instagram and many other locations as they develop. Join colleagues on OTION forums (Occupational Therapy International Online Networks). Look for online modules through learning.wfot.org.

We are excited about the communication developments which are taking place within our global profession and will continue to share global, regional and national concerns, activities, and progress throughout the World Federation of Occupational Therapists.