Interventions, Effects, and Outcomes in Occupational Therapy: Adults and Older Adults

Occupational therapists are expected to maintain their knowledge of best practice by independently keeping up to date on the latest research. With Interventions, Effects, and Outcomes in Occupational Therapy: Adults and Older Adults, Drs. Mary Law and Mary Ann McColl have assembled the evidence for effectiveness of occupational therapy for adults and older adults.

Interventions, Effects, and Outcomes in Occupational Therapy brings together the latest published peer-reviewed literature, conceptual approaches, outcome measures, and intervention approaches to address the three main areas by:

• Identifying a finite set of interventions which occupational therapists deliver most often, and providing details of those intervention approaches
• Identifying where the research evidence shows that occupational therapists can achieve specific positive effects as a result of those interventions
• Identifying the outcome measures most commonly and reliably used by researchers in occupational therapy to demonstrate the effects of interventions

Drs. Mary Law and Mary Ann McColl have comprehensively reviewed all of the intervention effectiveness literature for occupational therapy provided for adults. The material reviewed crosses all diagnostic categories and areas of practice for adults and older adults. Analysis of over 500 research studies and systematic reviews form the basis for this book.

Who will benefit from the text:
• Occupational therapy students will learn about the most effective occupational therapy interventions for adults and older adults, and how to measure outcomes after these interventions.
• Clinicians will be able to identify the practices for which most evidence exists of effectiveness.
• Researchers will be provided with a synthesis of current methods, approaches, measures and results of intervention studies in occupational therapy.
• Decision makers will be able to assess the effectiveness of occupational therapy programs and make strategic investments in occupational therapy to achieve the greatest benefit for their clients.
• Occupational therapy managers, institutional administrators, and government funders will find information to support investments in the most effective occupational therapy practices to ensure the maximum occupational performance, health, and well-being for their constituents.

Interventions, Effects, and Outcomes in Occupational Therapy brings together and evaluates the research and evidence on the effectiveness of occupational therapy. The text will also provide a summary of the strengths and weakness of previous research on the topic, as well as a guide to the most common and appropriate outcome measures in the area.

Never before has there been a text that so clearly assembles the evidence for the effectiveness of occupational therapy.

Mary Law, PhD, FCAOT, is Professor and Associate Dean (Health Sciences) of Rehabilitation Science and Associate Member of the Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics at McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. She holds the John and Margaret Lillie Chair in Childhood Disability Research. Mary, an occupational therapist by training, is co-founder of CanChild Centre for Childhood Disability Research, a multidisciplinary research center at McMaster University. Mary’s research centers on the development and validation of client-centered outcome measures, evaluation of occupational therapy interventions with children, the effect of environmental factors on the participation of children with disabilities in day-to-day activities, and transfer of research knowledge into practice. She has had a long interest in outcome measurement and is the lead author of the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure, an outcome measure for occupational therapy now translated into 30 languages and used in more than 40 countries around the world. Mary has received many honors nationally and internationally including the Muriel Driver Lectureship, the top award in Canadian occupational therapy, election to the American Occupational Therapy Foundation Academy of Research, and Fellow, Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists. Mary has also been elected to the membership of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences and serves on their board representing rehabilitation science.
Mary Ann McColl, PhD, MTS, is Professor in Rehabilitation Therapy and Community Health and Epidemiology and Associate Director of the Centre for Health Services and Policy Research at Queen’s University. Before coming to Queen’s, she was Director of Research at Lyndhurst Spinal Cord Centre and taught at the University of Toronto. She is an author of several books on disability and disability policy, as well as several occupational therapy textbooks and resources. She is a co-author on the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure, along with Mary Law and several other prominent Canadian occupational therapists. Mary Ann is a Fellow of the Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists. In addition to graduate work in epidemiology and biostatistics, she has recently completed a Master’s of Theological Studies and does part-time community chaplaincy. Her research interests include occupational therapy theory and measurement, disability studies and disability policy, access to health services for people with disabilities, aging and disability, community integration, social support, and spirituality and health.