Editorial - OT Legacy website
Transcription
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