Week 6 Presentation: Occupational Justice

What is Occupational Justice?

• Concerned with ethical, moral, and civic issues such as equity and fairness for individuals and collectives, specific to engagement in diverse and meaningful occupation that is inclusive of “doing, being, belonging, and becoming”

• Relatively new construct in OT

  • Builds on 1917 foundations of AOTA to “study the effect of occupation upon the human being”

  • Addresses inequities from “societal conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age”

Occupational Justice as an Idea and a Need

• From the beginning of time, humans have needed occupation to survive

• Occurs when a societal system allows each person and community to meet occupational needs required. for survival

Terms Through an Occupational Justice Lens: Occupation

• All things that people want, need, or have to do

• Refers to all aspects of doing, being, belonging, and becoming at individual and population levels

• Unit if economy shaped by time, place, and social conditions

• Central to possibilities and limitations in pursuing goals

• Power to participate in occupations may be controlled through physical force, or invisibly through regulation

• Humans require occupation not only to thrive, but also to survive

Terms Through an Occupational Justice Lens: Social Justice

• Just and non-discriminatory relationships between individuals, groups, and the society in which they live

• Equitable sharing of resources

• UN (1994): “Their equal right to be able to meet basic needs to spread opportunities and life chances as widely as possible

Terms Through an Occupational Justice Lens: Theory of Occupational Justice

• Occupation is central to human experience

• People are occupational beings

• People participate in occupations as autonomous beings and members of a community

• Participation in occupation is interdependent and contextual

• Human empowerment is achieved through occupational engagement; empowerment is dependent on context

• Societies are responsible for enablement of a person’s occupational potential

• Occupational justice—> occupational illness, deprivation, imbalance, alienation

Social Requirements for Occupational/Social Justice

• The creation of families, groups, and communities as structures in which people can define what they can and want to do, who they will be and become, and how they belong or not in particular social and populations contexts

• The organization of economic and human resources in which people are enabled to participate according to their potential, experience well-being, reduce illness, and thrive

WHO Definition of Health

• Encompasses not only the absence of illness but also the presence of mental, physical, and social well-being

WHO Ottawa Charter (1986)

• Health is a fundamental right of all human beings; called for “enablement”, “mediation”, and “advocacy” to reduce health inequalities between and within countries where inequities are unfair and unacceptable

• Key strategies

  • Building healthy public policy, creation of environments that are supportive of health, development of personal skills, reorientation of health services

• Occupational Justice answers this by affirming that access to health-giving occupations to meet biological, mental health, social, and economic needs should be regarded as a fundamental right for all human beings

Occupational Justice and Health: Globalization

• Absence of illness

• Social health and well-being

• Mental health and well-being

• Physical health and well-being

Mental Health and Well-Being

• A state of well-being in which every individual realizes his or her own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to her or his community

Physical Health and Well-Being

Too much, too little, or ill-chosen occupations can lead directly to illness or death

Occupational Justice Within Occupational Therapy

• Occupational Justice is at the roots of OT

• Occupational Justice is influencing professional organizations

• Need to consider social health- population based

  • Accepting the professional responsibility of raising awareness of occupational injustices such as occupational deprivation, imbalance, and alienation