In this issue of SJOT I would like to take the opportunity to proudly present our impact factor, which is 1.125 for the last year, which mans an increase from 1.048 the year before. This would not have been possible without many individuals contributing in different ways to the good result: authors, reviewers, the SJOT foundation, Informa Healthcare staff, SJOT editorial board, and national editors. Thank you all for your tireless work and let us continue in the same manner, striving for further improvements during 2014.
I would also like to draw your attention to our 20th anniversary issue. On the Informa Healthcare SJOT home page is a “historical résumé”, which reproduces the first editorial by all editors of SJOT and is followed by a selection of articles from some of the most influential authors on Scandinavian occupational therapy during those 20 years.
The current issue begins with an interesting article evaluating housing adaptation interventions integrating a health economic perspective. Concepts such as effectiveness, cost, and cost-effectiveness are becoming increasingly important to show the benefit of occupational therapy for clients’ health and well-being and I am sure that this perspective will be applied in several practice areas in the years ahead.
Another article discusses how the Model of Juggling Occupations is used as a conceptual framework in a case study exploring the complex experiences of role balance amongst working women with family responsibilities living in Perth, Australia. There are also things to be learnt from a phenomenological study of changes in daily occupations and the meaning of work for three women in Austria caring for relatives post-stroke.
A 16-week Redesigning Daily Occupations (ReDO) programme for women on sick leave due to stress-related disorders in Sweden was assessed in terms of occupational value, satisfaction with everyday occupations, and participation level. The results showed that everyday occupations were relevant outcomes after work rehabilitation and could play an important role in the future development of profession-specific evidence of occupational therapy.
A focus-group study of 12 ageing participants shows how the process of meaning-making in ongoing life was closely associated with togetherness and was negotiated with others through shared culture and experiences. Togetherness was created and maintained through an ongoing process of nurturing established relationships as well as creating something new around occupations with others.
A client-centred activities of a daily living intervention (ADL) was compared with the usual ADL intervention (UADL) in people with stroke, but did not appear to bring about short-term differences in outcomes like independence in ADL, perceived participation, life satisfaction, use of home-help service, and satisfaction with training in stroke sufferers or their significant others with reference to caregiver burden, life satisfaction, and informal care.
Finally in this issue there is a study on experiences of limitations in occupational performance and strategies for managing daily activities among the elderly with chronic heart failure. The results showed that elderly people with SHF are truggling with an ongoing process of occupational adaptation due to periodic physical decline and fluctuating day-to-day ability. The conclusion highlights the need for information on strategies from a holistic perspective and client-centred occupational therapy interventions.
Lastly I would like to draw your attention to a forthcoming, exciting thematic issue of SJOT that will be published in the autumn of 2015 and that will provide a forum for critical perspectives on challenges and possibilities for implementing “client-centred” practices in occupational therapy throughout the world. Since the 1980s, occupational therapists have claimed that this profession intends to be “client-centred”; however, many researchers have adopted critical perspectives on the true implementation of “client-centred” practice. Professor Emerita Elizabeth Townsend and Associate Professor Gudrun Palmardottir will be editing this special issue. Submissions should address theory, practice, research, education, management, and/or governance and may include:
in-depth reviews that include critical analyses of the literature;
original articles;
practice reflections;
short reports;
letters to the Thematic Issue Editors.
The deadline for submissions is 20 October 2014 and you are most welcome to contribute.
Anita Björklund
Editor in Chief