The Literature of Occupational Therapy

In United States, the occupational therapy was formally organized in the year 1917 and is regarded as an allied health field. Mapping the literature of occupational therapy had been a part of a bibliometric project of the Allied Health Resources Section and Medical Library Association of Nursing. Between the years of 1995 and 1996, there are three core journals selected. And the determination was made on cited journal references wherein the standard indexing sources were covered. With the use of Bradford’s Law of Scattering, there were three zones created whereas each zone contains an approximate one-third of the cited journal references. From the results, it was cited that there are three journals comprising the first zone, on the second zone there are 117 journals and on the third zone there are 657 journals. Apparently, the American Journal of Occupational therapy was the most cited journal. On the second zone, twelve disciplines journals were identified. The MEDLINE had provided the best indexing overall as it includes the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature or the CINAHL, which was the only database that had indexed three of the most cited journals including also the nine of the currently titles concerning occupational therapy. MEDLINE can improve as well the coverage of occupational therapy by indexing the national associations of Australia, Canada and Great Britain.

This study is part of the Project for Mapping the Literature of Allied Health sponsored by the Nursing and Allied Health Resources Section (NAHRS) of the Medical Library Association, which was first described in 1997 by Schloman. Occupational therapy has been part of the group of professions related to health and medicine for many years. It has been routinely covered in the Brandon/Hill "Selected List of Books and Journals in Allied Health". The profession has also been associated with medical rehabilitation. Occupational therapy was formally organized in the United States in 1917 in Clifton Springs, New York. Originally the organization was named the National Society for the Promotion of Occupational therapy but was changed in 1921 to the American Occupational therapy Association (AOTA). The term "occupational therapy" was suggested by one of the founders, George Barton, an architect, in 1914. Barton hoped that for every occupational disease there would be a corresponding occupational therapy and cure. Although the relationship between disease and cure did not occur as Barton envisioned, the name has remained. The origins of occupational therapy began with persons who were mentally ill and later those with tuberculosis. In particular, the work of William Tuke, founder of The Retreat in York, England, and other Quakers had a significant role in developing the basic tenets of occupational therapy in America. Moral treatment, as developed by Tuke and others was designed to address "moral insanity" by teaching the morally insane how to live a moral life. Staff lived with the patients twenty-four hours a day, taught lessons, and showed by example how to live and work in the moral, humane, and humanistic environment provided within the institution.

Another strong influence on occupational therapy was the Arts and Crafts Movement developed in England by John Ruskin but implemented by William Morris. The Arts and Crafts Movement in America, which flourished from 1880 to 1920, contributed the therapeutic concepts of promoting individuality into self-esteem and purposeful action into the performance of daily life tasks. In addition the philosophy of pragmatism, as organized by John Dewey and William James, provided occupational therapists with a practical approach to solving patients' problems in everyday living. Education of occupational therapy personnel began in 1906 when Susan E. Tracy, a nurse, first gave lectures on invalid occupations to nurses of Adams Nervine Hospital in Boston. Tracy also wrote the first textbook on occupational therapy. Two years later, in 1908, a three-week course was given by the School of Civics and Philanthropy, a settlement house in Chicago with cooperation from members of Jane Addams staff at Hull House. After World War I, the recommended length of a training program increased to one year. Beginning in 1931, a university degree was given at Milwaukee Downer College.

The growth of literature in occupational therapy was also slow for many years. Until 1980, there was only one primary journal published in the United States devoted to occupational therapy, although the specific journal changed from Occupational therapy and Rehabilitation, published by Williams & Wilkins, to the American Journal of Occupational therapy, published by AOTA beginning in 1947. In 1980, the journal Occupational therapy in Mental Health began publication, and thereafter several other journals were started that rapidly increased the literature available about occupational therapy as a profession and its therapeutic applications. At the same time, the number of textbooks about occupational therapy began to increase rapidly as book publishers discovered there was market for textbooks in the allied health fields.