Palliative care and the finitude of life: Exploring the situationality of occupational therapy practice

• Grant number: 22/11392-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: January 01, 2023
• End date: September 30, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy
• Principal Investigator: Taís Quevedo Marcolino
• Grantee: Eduardo Augusto de Almeida Lino
• Host Institution: Centro de Ciências Biológicas e da Saúde (CCBS). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Palliative Care (PC) is multidisciplinary care for individuals and families facing life-threatening illnesses. Occupational therapists have been composing multiprofessional PC teams, associating rehabilitation with psychosocial and educational resources to help cope with losses resulting from illnesses and hospitalization and for the purpose of autonomy. In a previous scientific initiation project, numerous situational aspects were identified in the practice of four occupational therapists who work under the assumptions of the Dynamic Occupational Therapy Method (DOTM) in PC with children. The DOTM proposes the understanding of the repercussions of the conditions in which people find themselves (illness, disability, hospitalization, social vulnerability) in their everyday lives, through multiple information, as a basis for interventions in occupational therapy. It is a situational diagnosis, to apprehend what is possible from the contingencies that the person lives and that trigger needs to be understood in the situation. The appreciation of situational aspects in health practice has been gaining prominence based on contemporary social cognitive theories, many of them based on the propositions of Pragmatism. This project aims to deepen the understanding of the situational aspects of the practice of occupational therapists who work with DOTM in PC and is part of an ongoing research project (FAPESP 2021/14571-6). The objective is to explore the situational aspects of the practice of occupational therapists who work with MTOD in PC. Qualitative research will be done, through semi-structured interviews with occupational therapists who work under the assumptions of the MTOD, who work or have worked in PC in Brazil. Data analysis will be thematic, supported by researchers from the research team (FAPESP 2021/14571-6). We aim to broaden the understanding of how the situational aspects of the practice of occupational therapists who work with MTOD in PC shape/affect their care experiences, and to identify clues about how decision-making processes emerge from the interaction with contextual factors in the context of the work. CP in Brazil.