Editorial - OT Legacy website

Editorial
Throughout this issue of the Jou rnal, which marks our
50th anniversary of publication, you will find articles,
book reviews, advertisements and other information
reprinted from the early issues of CJOT. They are
interesting, to read from many points of view: some of
them are amusing - especially the advertisements —
but they all illustrate the way in which the Journal has
developed during the last fifty years.
Isobel Robinson, the Association's Archivist, has spent
much time and effort poring over early Journals to
produce an eclectic selection of memorabilia. Her assistance is greatly appreciated.
It' was considered appropriate to commemorate this
50th anniversary issue by reprinting the editorial from
Volume I, No I, September 1933, written by Dr. Goldwin Howland, M.B., F. R. C. P.S. It is interesting to note
how much has changed, and how much of what he had
to say in 1933 is as appropriate today as it was then.
Geraldine
Editor
Geraldine Moore
Rédactrice
(lack of occupation) is monopolizing
the attention of national parliaments and
of world conferences. Everywhere the
effort is being made to remedy human
dissatisfaction and mental unrest by providing daily tasks so that minds may he
occupied, bodies may be healthy, and the
means of sustenance may be found.
DR. GOLDWIN HOWLAND, M.13., F.R.C.P.v>.
( Can.), F.R.C.P. (London), President of the
Canadian Association of Occupational Therop .
The Need
Occupational Therapy, in the broad
sense of the term, has become the most
serious problem before the statesmen of
every nation in the world at the present
time. All over the civilized globe, the
widespread disease of unemployment
DECEMBER/DÉCEMBRE 1983
Partout dans ce numéro de la Revue, qui célèbre le
50e anniversaire de sa publication, vous trouverez des
articles, des critiques, des annonces et d'autres renseignements réimprimés des premières numéros de l'ACE.
Ils s'avèrent intéressants de beaucoup de points de vue:
quelques uns sont amusants — surtout les annonces —
mais ils démontrent tous le développement de la Revue
depuis 50 ans.
L'Archiviste de l'Association, Isobel Robinson, a consacré énormément de son temps et de son effort à
s'absorber dans la lecture des premières Revues pour
en rassembler une sélection éclectique de souvenirs.
Nous lui en sommes très reconnaissants.
Pour commémorer le numéro du 50° anniversaire,
nous avons trouvé tout à fait approprié de republier
l'article de la rédaction du premier numéro du Volume
I du mois de septembre, 1933, du Dr. Goldwin Howland,
M.B., F.R.C.P.S. Il est intéressant de constater combien
de ce qu'il y écrit a changé depuis, et en même temps
combien est aussi vrai maintenant qu'en 1933.
So long as unemployment continues,
men and women have opportunity to
brood over this social condition. Resentment develops and rebellion appears
to them to he the only solution. As time
goes on, the impulse to work becomes
dulled, and even mental activity lapses.
Soon those whose who are unemployed
seem to become morosely content; they
lack entirely the desire to work; slothfulness becomes a permanent state of
mind and body; and they become wards
of the nation and parasites on society.
The remedy for this world-wide malady is employment and employment only.
For some years the Canadian Association
of Occupational Therapy has been advocating the same principle for the sick,
the blind, the paralyzed, the mentally
infirm. The Association has been endeavouring to develop, in hospital and
institutional life, a plan for suitable
workshops, well trained workers, and attractive forms of occupation. The object
is two-fold. First, to keep occupied,
during at least part of the long, tiresome period of invalidism, the minds of
those who are temporarily swept aside
from healthy living by the ravages of
disease and of those who are permanently unable to live normal lives with
normal people. Second, to adapt the
method of treatment to the needs of the
individual so that, by active occupation,
maimed limbs and minds may be once
more restored to health.
The Venture
One of the clauses in the Constitution
of the Canadian Association of Occupational Therapy is "to establish a journal
when feasible." The time has now arrived when this organization, extending
from coast to coast over this broad Dominion, requires a medium of communication among its members that will enable
them to keep in touch with the development of the work in every quarter .
But a far greater necessity is daily
presenting itself to those who are managing your Association for you, and that is
the fact that physicians and members of
the Boards of Hospitals as well as the
general public are frequently absolutely
ignorant of this form of therapy, regarding it often as merely a form of entertainment of sick people. Too few are
aware that it is a satisfactory method of
hastening recovery both in mental and
physical cases.
Because Occupational Therapy is a
definite and proven theraupeutic measure
having as its advocates a great many
members of the medical and surgical
professions and practically all mental
specialists, it is our intention to publish
articles from the pens of men and women throughout Canada who will tell of
their experience with Occupational
Therapy in the widest and most varied
fields. These writers will give to the
profession in Canada, to those who are
interested in the physically and mentally ill, the blind, and the incurable, to
those who are associated with hospital
and institutional boards, as complete information about the work in Canada
and elsewhere as can be obtained by an
active editorial board devoted to the promotion of this great cause.
G. W. H.
155