A retrospective view of the affiliation of occupational therapy and psychiatry.

Abstract

In 1964 Bartemeier (1) expressed concern about the distancing of psychiatry from occupational therapy and emphasized the need for conjoint efforts. At the 1993 Institute on Hospital and Community Psychiatry, psychiatrist Marianne Klugheit (9) challenged occupational therapists "to wake us up." Emphasizing the potential of occupational therapy in community mental health programs, she stressed the need for occupational therapy to demonstrate to the physician the critical value of such service. As each profession matures and clarifies and refines its domain, roles and expectations change. In its youth, occupational therapy was the agent for psychiatry. It relied on and grew from the leadership and support of psychiatry, discovering in the process its own unique identity and potential. Perhaps we can expect the affiliation of the two disciplines to follow the evolution of the child-parent relationship. As the child matures and establishes his or her efficacy and as the onus of parental responsibility diminish...