Is anything in life simple? Why we should think about complexity

Investigating the effect strength of positive risk-taking barriers on discharge decisions in occupational therapy intermediate care: A factorial survey

“…Occupational therapy is a complex intervention in part because it includes engaging with risk and this is a vague area of practice often without ‘hard’ rules and specific procedures (Pentland et al, 2018). Making decisions under risk can include weighing up factors that are extrinsic to the client and may involve reconciling issues of accountability and legality, blame culture, professional risk, organisational resources and moral and ethical dilemmas (Moats and Doble, 2006; Morgan, 2004).…”

Research priority 6: How can occupational therapy services be more inclusive of mental and physical health?

“…Occupation and well-being are complex phenomena interacting with different aspects of the physical and sociocultural realms (Pentland, 2021). The psycholo gical impact of occupational imbalance, alienation or deprivation can be significant to the individual, both in the community and institutional settings, creating occupational and social injustice if people are unable to participate in the wider economic environment, meaning they, their family and carers often require support or interventions from health and social care services (Townsend and Wilcock, 2004).…”

Research priority seven: What is the role of occupational therapy in supporting self-management? Developing an occupation-centred lens for research and practice

“…Self-management practice should be a dynamic, contextualised process, guided by peoples’ experience of occupation at any given moment. The contextualisation of self-management processes to occupational therapy can be supported by existing, occupation-centred practice process frameworks, such as Occupational Therapy and Complexity: Defining and Describing Practice (Pentland et al, 2018). Such frameworks outline the role of education as a core component of the therapeutic process, akin to any self-management process, but also offer a way of thinking about self-management practices in relation to peoples’ occupations.…”