Evidence for your practice: Occupational therapy and sports

 

Occupational therapists’ experiences of enabling people to participate in sport

Article: Bullen, D., & Clarke, C. (2020). Occupational therapists’ experiences of enabling people to participate in sport. British Journal of Occupational Therapy, 0308022620973944.

Rationale: In response to growing demands on health and social care services there is an emphasis on communities addressing the needs of local populations to improve lives and reduce inequalities. Occupational therapists are responding to these demands by expanding their scope of practice into innovative settings, such as working with refugees, the homeless and residents of nursing homes, and within sport and leisure environments. The benefits of sport are widely acknowledged, and this paper argues that occupational therapists could play a pivotal role in enabling people to participate

Method: Semi-structured interviews were used to explore the experiences of enabling people to participate in sport from the perspective of five occupational therapists from the UK.

Findings: Two overarching themes and multiple sub-themes emerged in this study including:

1) “Practicing through an occupational therapy lens” demonstrated how occupational therapists viewed their clients through an OT lens while using a holistic approach to understanding and addressing their clients needs. Interventions that include sport and leisure activities were reported to be approaches OTs used to help clients nurture new social relationships and enable them to gain and transfer self-confidence to other aspects of their life.

The unique skills OTs bring – this subtheme described how sport was used therapeutically while adapting and modifying the environment and activities to fit a clients abilities.

2) “Challenges and opportunities for occupational therapists” emphasized how working outside traditional settings meant that some clients had barriers to inclusion. For instance, some therapists felt labeling something as a disability sport deterred clients from wanting to participate because they didn’t necessarily have a diagnosis or identify as having a disability. Further, sports tend to recruit individuals who are “sporty, who think sport’s brilliant and who think everyone should be doing more,” which can discourage less experienced people from feeling safe and confident enough to participate in sports.

Opportunities for the profession – this subtheme captured the perspective from participants that OTs working outside traditional settings have the opportunity to reach wider communities and those who weren’t previously accessing services because they didn’t meet the criteria for diagnosis.

Conclusion: Findings from this study support the understanding that occupational therapists are exploring new territory, pushing boundaries of traditional practice settings, and making a difference for clients who previously had sport and leisure occupations that were unexplored.

Implications for OT:

- Empowering clients by offering choice and control over the occupations they engage in can promote increased self-confidence and transference of this confidence to other occupations in their life

- Supporting clients without a diagnosis or who do not identify as having a disability can create new opportunities for physical and social activities

- OTs can use a holistic approach by using sport as a therapeutic means to address occupational transitions, new or different roles after an injury or disability, and promotion of the health benefits of engaging in physical activity

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