The results are in, the votes have been counted and I am putting on a sparkly dress to announce the top 10 Occupational Therapy books that all Occupational Therapists MUST read.
I wanted to put this list together because I knew I hadn’t read widely enough in my own area. This has given me a few places to look so thank you to everyone who took part in the survey. I was really interested to see what was nominated and absolutely delighted to see what wasn’t. We are going to do the top 9 in no order whatsoever and then the overall winner is at the bottom. Enjoy.
First up is Diverse roles for Occupational Therapists edited by Jane Clewes and Rob Kirkwood. I’m quite pleased this got through, not least because the chapter in it on ‘Personality Disorder’ is by me. This book has a range of OTs in different mental health positions describing their roles and it’s a great resource for particular areas and for bringing innovation into places we haven’t been before. Colleagues of mine wrote about PICUs, Prisons, and Eating Disorders - I’m pretty sure at one point we were the most academic OT corridor in the UK. It’s probably due a sequel now with even more novel roles emerging. Check it out for £32 or £15 on kindle.
23 years old and still pulling in the votes, Groupwork In Occupational Therapy by Linda Findlay is the oldest book in the list, retailing on Amazon for £50!!! Written primarily for occupational therapists, “this text explores the range of groupwork activities used within occupational therapy practice. Discussing theoretical aspects and practical approaches this book is an invaluable handbook to those working and studying occupational therapy.”
Occupational Therapies Without Borders: integrating justice with practice,
by Dikaios Sakellar and Nick Pollard is a book I hadn’t even heard of before. Apparently this builds on the previous two volumes, offering a window onto occupational therapy practice, theory and ideas in different cultures and geographies. It emphasizes the importance of critically deconstructing and engaging with the broader context of occupation, particularly around how occupational injustices are shaped through political, economic and historical factors.
Centering on the wider social and political aspects of occupation and occupation-based practices, this textbook aims to inspire occupational therapy students and practitioners to include transformational elements into their practice. It also illustrates how occupational therapists from all over the world can affect positive changes by engaging with political and historical contexts. It could probably do with a chapter on covid, but then I’m sure most books could at the moment….
4th on the list is An Occupational Perspective of Health by Ann Wilcock and Claire Hocking (£60!!!!). Another book I hadn’t come across before, Amazon says “For nearly 20 years, An Occupational Perspective of Health has been a valuable text for health practitioners with an interest in the impact of what people do throughout their lives. Now available in an updated and much-anticipated Third Edition, this unique text continues the intention of the original publication: it encourages wide-ranging recognition of occupation as a major contributor to all people’s experience of health or illness. It also promotes understanding of how, throughout the world, “population health” as well as individual well-being is dependent on occupation.” which sounds like a useful message for us to articulate.
Coming in 5th (They’re not in order) is Creating Positive Futures: Solution Focused Recovery from Mental Distress by Lucie Duncan, Rayya Ghul and Sarah Mousley. This is currently going for a much more modest £13 and you can let me know whether the Wilcock book is 4 times better. With 5 stars on Amazon “this is a valuable resource for anybody working in the fields of mental health and disability, regardless of professional discipline, not only occupational therapists but psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers and nurses. "It shows a respectful, structured and realistically optimistic way of talking with troubled people so that their own strengths and resources are highlighted.This book introduces their Solution Focused Measure of Occupational Function. It is clearly written and almost jargon-free, and contains many useful case- examples and suggestions for generative questions.The authors have avoided it becoming too much of a therapy-by-numbers ‘cook-book’.
Enabling Occupation II: Advancing an Occupational Therapy Vision for Health,well Being & Justice Through Occupation is on Amazon for £213!!! For that money I’d expect it to assess my clients for me. It’s not easy to find a synopsis for this book (if someone sends me one I’ll add it to the article) but what I have learned is: “As a practitioner, Section I provides you with the opportunity to reflect on the implications that embracing occupation as our core domain of concern has for your practice. The Section promotes an appreciation of the full breadth of human occupation and facilitates the adoption of an occupational perspective in viewing the world. With the Section you are encouraged to adopt an occupational perspective to guide your practice, be it as a clinician, educator, researcher, administrator, manager, or consultant. You will immerse yourself in language frameworks and models that will help to organize your thoughts and articulate your understanding of occupation and to explore the learnings that occupational science can shed on your understanding and appreciation of occupation” - £213 well spent.
7th on the list is Foundations for Practice in Occupational Therapy by Edward AS Duncan. Eddie was one of my first supervisors back in the days when I was young and knew nothing. Now that I’m old and know less it’s good to see this scoring so well. “Now in its fifth edition, the internationally acclaimed Foundations for Practice in Occupational Therapy continues to provide a practical reference tool which is both an indispensable guide to undergraduates and a practical reference tool for clinicians in the application of models and theories to practice. Underlining the importance and clinical relevance of theory to practice, the text provides an excellent introduction to the theoretical basis of occupational therapy.” A Snip at £31.
Client-Centred Practice in Occupational Therapy: A Guide to Implementation is 8th. This is penned by Thelma Sumsion, one of my undergraduate lecturers who once chided me for napping during a talk. “Directed primarily towards health care professionals outside of the United States, Client-Centered Practice in Occupational Therapy continues to be the only book that provides the reader with both the theoretical underpinnings of client-centred practice as well as guidance on the practical application of this approach.” Who knows what authoritarian practices will take place in the USA without a book like this to guide them? You can pick this up for £38.
Nearly there…This book was one of the two that dominated the field. Updated throughout with new research, the “5th Edition of Kielhofner's Model of Human Occupation (MOHO) offers a complete presentation of the most widely used model in occupational therapy today. In the new edition, author Renee Taylor preserves Dr. Kielhofner"s original voice and contributions while updating MOHO concepts and their uses in today's practice environment. Throughout the book, readers will see a client-centered approach used to explore what motivates each individual, how they select occupations and establish everyday routines, and how environment influences occupational behavior. The 5th Edition continues to deliver the latest in MOHO theory, research, and application to practice and adds much that is new, including new case studies that show how MOHO can address the real-life issues depicted and expanded resources that enhance teaching and learning.” This probably influences my OT clinical reasoning more than any other profession specific book I’ve read. £67 on amazon.
And the moment you have all been waiting for….will have to wait. I asked people what book wasn’t shortlisted but should have been and I was told Recovery Through Activity by Sue Parkinson was the missing gem.
It “is underpinned by the conceptual framework of the Model of Human Occupation and will provide an invaluable tool to practitioners and also create a platform for research.
Recovery Through Activity:
enables service users to recognise the long-term benefits of occupational participation by exploring the value of a range of activities
provides occupational therapists with a valuable tool to support the use of their core skills
provides comprehensive evidence regarding the value of activity along with a wealth of resources to support implementation of an occupation focused intervention
helps to refocus the practice of occupational therapy in mental health on occupation
and supports occupational therapy practitioners to engage in their core skills and enhance the quality of service user care in mental health”
All yours for £33.
Finally we have the winner. With more votes than any other and 5x the votes of the lowest scoring finalist, Creek's Occupational Therapy and Mental Health edited by Wendy Bryant comes romping in first with a price tag of £44. Another ‘go to’ book for me, this "seminal textbook for occupational therapy students and practitioners has retained the comprehensive detail of previous editions with significant updates, including the recovery approach informed by a social perspective. Emerging settings for practice are explored and many more service users have been involved as authors. Occupational Therapy and Mental Health is essential reading for students and practitioners across all areas of health and/or social care, in statutory, private or third (voluntary) sectors, and in institutional and community-based settings”
If you want to read a non-OT mental health book, The Body Keeps The Score annihilated the competition.
And that is the result of the survey. You also told me you’re interested in an OT TED style event so I might see if I can make that happen. Go forth and read these books. Very little is written about some of them so add to the reviews and tell people what you thought. Before you smash out your money on hardcopies of these, it might be worth considering joining BAOT. At least one of these is available as a free ebook to members. If you hadn’t considered joining before (And why not???) this might be enough to tempt you. If anyone wants to send me a copy of any of these I’m happy to review it. Hope this was useful. Happy reading.
Keir provides supervision and thinking space around mental health provision, particularly those viewed as being high risk. He is contactable via www.beamconsultancy.co.uk and is active on twitter @keirwales and Facebook - Keir Harding OT