Among the rapidly increasing population of older adults, the minority elderly have also been increasing in numbers and are projected to grow at a more rapid rate than the white population well into the next century (American Association of Retired Persons, 1989). This factor, together with the existence of substantial ethnic diversity among both white and minority elders, mandates that our profession examine how we address the associated needs of all older adults who receive occupational therapy services in order to promote optimal performance and quality of life. Rationales for providers to increase personal awareness of these factors as basic contextual determinants in providing services are offered. The inclusion of cultural and ethnic considerations in all interventions with older adults as critical components in the provision of quality service is given, together with suggestions for methods of implementation.

Health care delivery includes a backdrop of constrained resources and scrutiny of quality, benefits, and cost of services. The peer-reviewed evidence supporting the benefits of occupational therapy is therefore of considerable importance in the debate about what constitutes reimbursable therapies. This article identifies the scope of occupational therapy research articles in recent published literature. MEDLINE and CINAHL were searched for "occupational therapy" from January 1996 through October 2002. Articles were coded by content, journal, and country. Journal ratings for "impact" also were reviewed. A total of 3,391 articles met inclusion criteria and 868 (25.6%) were classified as research, among which more than half (55.0%) were published in occupational therapy journals. Within occupational therapy journals, 21.4% of scholarship identified as occupational therapy was classified as research compared to 42.9% of the articles in rehabilitation medicine journals. Occupational therapy scholarship is in danger of being omitted in the current debates on health care delivery, costs, and quality. More transdisciplinary research may be one avenue for expanding occupational therapy research.

Importance: Transition and integration reentry services continue to grow in carceral settings; however, related provision of occupational therapy is limited. Objective: To examine the implementation fidelity of an occupational therapy–administered interprofessional reentry program initiated in an urban jail. Design: Retrospective, mixed quantitative and qualitative design. Setting: Community-based reentry services provided prerelease in a Midwestern urban jail and postrelease in the local St. Louis community. Participants: Occupational therapy practitioners tracking process measures for identifying reentry project feasibility. Intervention: Provision of recruitment, assessment, and skilled occupational therapy services with people held in a short-term jail facility and follow-up during community reentry. Outcome and Measures: Detailed logs were analyzed to describe attendance at and duration of sessions. We coded barriers to and facilitators of implementation from weekly team meeting notes and logs using social–ecological categories. Results: Findings indicate that it was feasible to implement prerelease jail-based services (N = 63) because of jail operations and community partnerships (facilitators) and to overcome institutional policies and environmental limitations (barriers). Full 8-wk prerelease programming was completed by 38% (n = 24) of participants, and 52% (n = 33) participated less than 8 wk. All who completed the full prerelease program and transitioned to the community (n = 15) initiated postrelease occupational therapy services. Conclusions and Relevance: The iterative feedback provided by process evaluation supported the feasibility of implementing the jail-based Occupational Therapy Transition and Integration Services program. What This Article Adds: This process evaluation provides evidence that implementation of an occupational therapy–based transition program in an urban jail is feasible.

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