Challenges of occupational therapy in public health

Abstract

Within the framework of the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Occupational Therapy in Colombia, this article aims to reflect on some challenges that occupational therapists may face in the near future, emphasizing on public health elements that may contribute to reconsider both academic and professional knowledge and practice. Considering the legacy of positivism and the biomedical model that has inspired the knowledge and construction of Occupational Therapy around rehabilitation, some of said challenges involve conceiving health as something more than the opposite of illness; studying and understanding occupational performance in all human beings, not only in people with disabilities undergoing rehabilitation processes; positioning occupation as a fundamental determinant of health promotion and disease prevention, both in healthy individuals and populations; participating in the formulation and implementation of health policies and programs; and understanding the influence of the economic, political and social organization of society on human activity. These debts are opportunities for a receptive community, willing to grow and consolidate socially.