From Paper to Practice: The Views of Occupational Therapists on the Impact of the National Service Framework for Older People on Practice

Abstract

Philp (2003) outlined the fundamental role that occupational therapists could have in implementing the National Service Framework (NSF) for Older People and reforming services for older people (Department of Health 2001). A research project was undertaken, which aimed to investigate the views of occupational therapists about the implementation of the policy in order to identify the key areas and issues that have had an impact on practice. The research design was qualitative and took the form of focus groups. The focus group data were analysed using a long-table analysis method (Krueger and Casey 2000), which identified five key themes: a raised profile of older people's services, a changing delivery of services, a revisiting of occupational therapy core skills, assessment and resource allocation. The emerging themes suggested that the NSF for Older People has had an impact on the practice of the occupational therapists involved in the focus groups.

Facilitating rigorous qualitative research in rehabilitation psychology.

“…A particularly exciting new use of qualitative methods, represented in studies published in the last 5 years, is investigations of health care system issues. For example, Jacob-Lloyd et al (2006) used a qualitative research design involving focus groups to identify issues in the implementation of the United Kingdom's National Service Framework for Older People policy. In another study of system issues, researchers interviewed individuals receiving Social Security Administration disability benefits, but who wanted to work, to identify barriers to employment, and the Social Security Administration system itself was the most frequently cited barrier (Olney, 2007).…”