Cultural Mosaics: How OTs Fit!
Design Process and Navigation: How to use the webpage
Identifying Areas of Interest
In order to identify areas of interest to focus on for our project, we performed a search for occupational therapists who work with multicultural clients or immigrant clients. We looked at literature that discussed the needs that came up when working with these clients, and how we could look for resources to assist therapists who are working with these populations. We found an excellent article by Chiang & Carlson (2003) on “Occupational therapy in multicultural contexts: issues and strategies”. The authors state that suggestions of increasing awareness of cultural differences and becoming involved with experiences of “entering other cultural spaces” was not a new idea. There was a section specifically focused on occupational therapy with immigrant cultural groups, which was the area we were particularly interested in. The authors broke the concepts down into key issues, cultural variations and strategies. What we wanted to focus on for this project were the issues involved in working with the immigrant population.
The issues identified by the authors were:
Navigating the Webpage
Each section addresses a specific area of interest.
Connect with community resources (CONNECT: RESOURCES)
- To address: Stress / culture shock and the need to adapt to a new environment
- Areas involved: Job / volunteer search, childcare, learning English, transportation, housing, finances, access to technology and ways to contact home.
Providing Information on Accessing Various Services (ACCESS: SERVICES)
- To address: Limited Access to Services by Immigrant People
- Areas involved: cultural groups, religious groups, leisure activities, low-income support, applying to services (forms, documents, legal issues), health-care and libraries.
Assisting OTs in Learning More About Cultural Competency (FOR: OTs)
- To address: Limited therapist knowledge of immigrant cultures
- Areas involved: learning about different cultures, strategies for communicating with clients, adapting therapy to clients, ensuring interventions / assessments have cultural context and relevance, assisting immigrants who have disabilities or are caregivers for those with disabilities.
Creation of the Webpage and Images
The webpage was made with Weebly and customized CSS design.
A list of the images that were used for this webpage are listed here for more information.
References
Chiang, M. & Carlson, G. (2003). Occupational therapy in multicultural contexts: issues and strategies. British Journal of Occupational Therapy, 66(12), 559-567.
Martins, V. & Reid, D. (2007). New-immigrant women in urban Canada: insights into occupationl and sociocultural context. Occupational Therapy International, 14(4), 203-220.
Pooremamali, P., Persson, D. & Eklund, M. (2010). Occupational therapists’ experience of working with immigrant clients in mental health care. Scandinavian Journal of Occupational Therapy, early-online 1-13.
Suarez-Balcazar, Y., Martinez, L.I. & Casas-Byots, C. (2005). A participatory action research approach for identifying health service needs of Hispanic immigrants: implications for occupational therapy. Occupational Therapy in Health Care, 19(1/2), 145-163.
In order to identify areas of interest to focus on for our project, we performed a search for occupational therapists who work with multicultural clients or immigrant clients. We looked at literature that discussed the needs that came up when working with these clients, and how we could look for resources to assist therapists who are working with these populations. We found an excellent article by Chiang & Carlson (2003) on “Occupational therapy in multicultural contexts: issues and strategies”. The authors state that suggestions of increasing awareness of cultural differences and becoming involved with experiences of “entering other cultural spaces” was not a new idea. There was a section specifically focused on occupational therapy with immigrant cultural groups, which was the area we were particularly interested in. The authors broke the concepts down into key issues, cultural variations and strategies. What we wanted to focus on for this project were the issues involved in working with the immigrant population.
The issues identified by the authors were:
- Stress / culture shock and the need to adapt to a new environment
- Limited therapist knowledge of immigrant cultures
- Limited access to services by immigrant people
Navigating the Webpage
Each section addresses a specific area of interest.
Connect with community resources (CONNECT: RESOURCES)
- To address: Stress / culture shock and the need to adapt to a new environment
- Areas involved: Job / volunteer search, childcare, learning English, transportation, housing, finances, access to technology and ways to contact home.
Providing Information on Accessing Various Services (ACCESS: SERVICES)
- To address: Limited Access to Services by Immigrant People
- Areas involved: cultural groups, religious groups, leisure activities, low-income support, applying to services (forms, documents, legal issues), health-care and libraries.
Assisting OTs in Learning More About Cultural Competency (FOR: OTs)
- To address: Limited therapist knowledge of immigrant cultures
- Areas involved: learning about different cultures, strategies for communicating with clients, adapting therapy to clients, ensuring interventions / assessments have cultural context and relevance, assisting immigrants who have disabilities or are caregivers for those with disabilities.
Creation of the Webpage and Images
The webpage was made with Weebly and customized CSS design.
A list of the images that were used for this webpage are listed here for more information.
References
Chiang, M. & Carlson, G. (2003). Occupational therapy in multicultural contexts: issues and strategies. British Journal of Occupational Therapy, 66(12), 559-567.
Martins, V. & Reid, D. (2007). New-immigrant women in urban Canada: insights into occupationl and sociocultural context. Occupational Therapy International, 14(4), 203-220.
Pooremamali, P., Persson, D. & Eklund, M. (2010). Occupational therapists’ experience of working with immigrant clients in mental health care. Scandinavian Journal of Occupational Therapy, early-online 1-13.
Suarez-Balcazar, Y., Martinez, L.I. & Casas-Byots, C. (2005). A participatory action research approach for identifying health service needs of Hispanic immigrants: implications for occupational therapy. Occupational Therapy in Health Care, 19(1/2), 145-163.
