Message from the President: A new age

The WFOT Bulletin is the international voice of the organisation and its members and the editorial team constantly strive to seek and provide information that is topical, challenging and thought provoking. Over the years the Bulletin has grown from a “newsletter” to a well read and circulated journal that attracts submissions from a broad range of occupational therapists covering a wide range of experience internationally. It gives me great pleasure to be writing this editorial in what is the first publication of the Bulletin by Maney Publishing – an internationally respected publishing house. Maney bring with them the wind of change which I am confident will lead to growth. They have committed to supporting the expansion of the WFOT Bulletin's status and scope in the online literature with the aim of increasing to 3 issues per year by 2017. I congratulate them and WFOT looks forward to working with them over the coming years.

The organisational objectives for WFOT are outlined within its WFOT Strategic Plan (WFOT, 2012) and supported by the current organisational priorities which focus on:

1.	WHO and the global health agenda shapes the major focus of the WFOT's involvement as a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) with the UN.
2.	Education is the core business of the Federation and its most recognised area.
3.	Professional promotion and development of the profession in the global arena is an overarching priority that requires strengthened communications with professional constituents, external agencies and organisations and the public.

The WFOT collaborative activities with the WHO are multi-faceted across the many WHO departments. Currently we are focussed on a range of issues including:

Providing feedback on the “WHO Global Coordination Mechanism for the Prevention and Control of Non Communicable Diseases (GMC/NCDs). The response to WFOT's call to Member Organisations to nominate occupational therapy experts to inform WFOT's comments on the GMC/NCDs was extremely pleasing, and I am delighted to report that the WHO acknowledged the importance of the input of WFOT. Information on the GMC/NCDs, including WFOT's feedback, is available at http://www.who.int/nmh/ncd-coordination-mechanism/en/.

Currently WFOT is developing its response to the First Draft of the Framework for Country Action Across Sectors for Health and Health Equity. Resolution WHA67.12 requested the Director-General to “prepare, for the consideration of the Sixty-eighth World Health Assembly, in consultation with Member States, United Nations organizations and other relevant stakeholders as appropriate, and within existing resources, a Framework for Country Action, for adaptation to different contexts, taking into account the Helsinki Statement on Health in All Policies, aimed at supporting national efforts to improve health, ensure health protection, health equity and health systems functioning, including through action across sectors on determinants of health and risk factors of noncommunicable diseases, based on best available knowledge and evidence”. I look forward to providing future updates.

Another issue is the review of the draft World Report on Health and Ageing. The theme of this Bulletin issue on Healthy Ageing is timely given WFOT's current involvement in this review and I have noted with interest the articles in this edition.

My own area of interest is that of the ageing workforce. As we all know there is a significant increase in the average age of the global workforce in many countries, with large increases in the proportion of workers in the age groups of 50–65 and older. Often these issues are managed by reducing the size of the workforce through retrenchment of older workers (particularly in difficult financial times). However, there is also evidence indicating that older workers leave their jobs because of impairment or disability, and reduced capacity to continue in their position, and in many cases this is a result of cumulative exposure to adverse working conditions throughout their working life (Kinsellla-Taylor, 2000).

The management literature on older workers is minimal compared with the literature devoted to the recruitment and retention of younger workers and companies are still stuck with an antiquated model of dealing with ageing, which assumes that people should get pay rises and promotions on the basis of age and then disappear when they reach retirement.

This doesn't necessarily have to be the case if there is acknowledgement of and full use of the skills and knowledge older workers can contribute in the workplace combined with the application and understanding of the basic relationship between work capacity and work demands.

Ageism is a way of categorising people based purely on age which leads to unfavourable treatment of that group. Within the employment context older workers are often considered to be unable to learn new skills – “you can't teach an old dog new tricks”. Employers are also concerned about disability risks associated with employing older workers leading to recruiters being told not to send CVs of anyone over 40 (Australian Human Rights Commission, 2010).

Evidence exists that older workers are more cost effective due to higher retention rates, lower rates of absenteeism and decreased recruitment costs compared to other workers leading to a greater return on investment (Business Work and Ageing, 2000). It is well accepted that we are now experiencing good health and living longer lives in many countries. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD, 2006) has reported that among OECD nation's verbal skills, communication and intelligence remain unchanged as a person ages.

For many years disability began where health ended; once you were disabled, you were in a separate category. As occupational therapists, we do not subscribe to this kind of thinking. Age and disability are not synonymous and disability is often more of an environmental issue than a medical or age related issue. We need to take our rightful place in influencing strategy around healthy ageing and implementing practice that promotes it.

As I write this editorial The Executive Management Team (EMT) is preparing for the Executive Management Team Meeting (EMTM), to be held 21–25 April in Buenos Aires, Argentina. In addition to attending to WFOT business, the EMT looks forward to meeting with our Argentinian colleagues to address issues such as promoting occupational therapy in the health care and educational systems. The EMT will also take the opportunity to contribute to educational events for local occupational therapists whilst in Argentina.

These are indeed exciting times for WFOT but more importantly for the occupational therapy profession. I have watched with pleasure the continuous growth in WFOT member organisations each one signalling the development of the profession in another country in the world. The WFOT Human Resource Project shows the current status of the profession internationally and the comparative data indicates the worldwide growth in the profession (WFOT, 2014).

Our profession is made up of truly remarkable people doing remarkable things in remarkable settings. I am proud to be a member of such a remarkable profession.