Displaced Persons

Following a panel discussion on occupational therapy with refugees and displaced persons at the 2016 COTEC-ENOTHE Congress in Galway, Ireland, a need and interest was identified to establish an interest group on occupational therapy with displaced persons in Europe.

The aim of this group was to draft a position paper to assist in positioning the profession in this field. The interest group was composed of a core group of occupational therapy practitioners, researchers and educators with experience and interest in this context, who were responsible for steering the group and drafting documents; and a secondary group of topic experts that contributed to the paper at various moments during the writing process. During the process of drafting the position paper, members of the interest group recognized the need to first take inventory of the current OT interventions and research occuring in Europe and from there draw implications for the future.

Therefore, the group chose to create three documents: a report of current practices with implications for the future, a call-to-action for occupational therapy practice, research and education in Europe, and a template for national position papers to address members of OT-Europe and the wider occupational therapy community.