Negotiating occupation: How older people make sense of the concept of “occupation”

Abstract

Background: The concept of occupation has been widely discussed and developed theoretically in occupational science and occupational therapy. Objectives: To explore how older community living adults themselves describe and negotiate the meaning and definition of "occupation". Methods: Twenty-seven persons in northern Sweden (67-95 years old) participated in workshops with audio-recorded discussions. The transcribed discussions were analyzed using discourse theory. Findings: Discussions started with efforts to establish a initial definition of occupation focusing on what kinds of practices could be seen as occupations. Second, there were significant efforts to value and grade different occupations, described as evaluative definitions. Last, participants resonated around the disadvantages of stable definitions of occupations, and put forth reflexive arguments for more relativizing definitions. Conclusion: While physical occupations were tellable, social and mental occupations seemed to require a language that was less familiar. Therefore, interventions that suggest participants to engage in social or mental occupations need to provide a language that makes non-physical occupations comprehensible as occupations. ARTICLE HISTORY

Depopulation in Spain and violation of occupational rights

“…A deeper understanding of senior citizens' perspective on occupation might provide insights about the relationship among occupation, place, and individuals. At the same time, such knowledge is expected to be useful to conduct occupational interventions in rural áreas (Lundgren et al, 2020). The satisfactory engagement of seniors in social occupations and physical and recreational occupations can have a positive influence on the health and well-being of people and their communities (Alegre et al, 2010;Chang et al, 2014;Doble & Santha, 2008).…”

Occupational Concepts: An Underutilized Resource to Further Disabled People and Others Being Occupied: A Scoping Review

“…Being occupied is an important factor in human well-being [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9] and humans occupy themselves with many things they do from paid and unpaid work to activities of daily living [10][11][12]. The World Federation of Occupational Therapists, for example, states that occupations are "everyday activities that people do as individuals, in families, and with communities to occupy time and bring meaning and purpose to life.…”