Community development practice in occupational therapy: A scoping review.
Tetsuya Anzai, Atsushi Kawabata, Norikazu Kobayashi and 1 others
The 38 published pieces on community development in occupational therapy are almost all qualitative, none tested whether the practice works, and the field still lacks agreed definitions, training, and institutional support.
Key findings
1The review included 38 articles, 18 of which were research papers; almost all were qualitative, and none specifically examined the effectiveness of community development practice.
2The most frequently cited occupational therapy definition of community development was Lauckner et al. (2007), referenced in six articles, while the most cited non-occupational therapy definition was Labonte, appearing in eight articles.
3Twenty-three articles addressed barriers and enablers to community development practice; the most common enabler was educational systems (n = 16) and the most common barrier was individual-level issues such as lack of preparation or understanding (n = 12).
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How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
Almost all included studies were qualitative and none examined the effectiveness of community development practice, so this review maps what the field discusses rather than what works. The search was limited to English-language publications and to databases accessible at the authors' institution; Scopus was not available, and related terms such as 'social occupational therapy' and 'community participation' were not used as search terms, so relevant work may be missing. Research is concentrated in a small number of authors and countries (Canada, South Africa, Australia), with no studies from the United States, South America, or Asia. The review did not resolve the fundamental tension between community development's collective, community-driven focus and occupational therapy's traditional individual, therapeutic model.
Declared interests
The authors declare no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, or publication of this article.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this review as evidence that community development practice in occupational therapy is effective. None of the 38 included articles examined effectiveness, and the authors note that outcome indicators for community development remain unclear. This is a map of what the field discusses, not a demonstration that it works.
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