Abstract
The landscape of occupational therapy is unpredictable, particularly in the field of community based care. Occupational therapists have to work with complexity and uncertainty in a fast-changing world. The Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) highlights the importance of ethical behaviour of healthcare professionals towards clients and believes that registered healthcare professionals should act accordingly. Occupational therapists experience many sources of conflict in their daily practices, while at the same time, they have to uphold professional values, responsibilities and duties.
The first part of this chapter will set the landscape in which occupational therapists are working on a daily basis in South Africa. The second part of this chapter discusses and defines community development within community practice settings, whereas the third part of this chapter unpacks the ethical challenges experienced by occupational therapists working in community development practice settings. The fourth part of this chapter presents an example of a case study within the Fisantekraal community practice setting and in the fifth part of this chapter, the ethics principles that underpin community development practice for example in Fisantekraal, are applied and discussed. This chapter concludes with a summary of the importance of human rights, empowerment and equity as core ethical dimensions of community development practice that all healthcare professionals, including occupational therapists, should be aware of.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Banks, S., A. Armstrong, K. Carter, H. Graham, P. Hayword, A. Henry, T. Holland, C. Holmes, A. McNulty, N. Moore, N. Nayling, A. Stokoe, and A. Strachan. 2013. Everyday ethics in community based participatory research. Contemporary Social Sciences 8 (3): 263–277.
Blakeney, A., and A. Marshall. 2009. Water quality, health and human occupations. American Journal of Occupational Therapy 63 (1): 46–57.
Boyd, C., L. Hayes, R. Wilson, and C. Bearsley-Smith. 2008. Harnessing the social capital of rural communities for youth mental health: An asset-based community development framework. Australian Journal of Rural Health 16 (4): 189–193.
Dayal, H. 2010. Provision of rehabilitation services within the district health system: The experience of rehabilitation managers in facilitating this right for people with disabilities. South African Journal of Occupational Therapy 40 (1): 22–26.
Doble, S.E., and J.C. Santha. 2008. Occupational well-being: Rethinking occupational therapy outcomes. Canadian Journal of Occupational Therapy 75 (3): 184–190.
Duncan, M., and A. Alsop. 2006. Practice and service learning in context. In Practice and service learning in occupational therapy: Enhancing potential in context, ed. T. Lorenzo, M. Duncan, H. Buchanan, and A. Alsop, 7–19. London: John Wiley & Sons.
Galheigo, S. 2011. What needs to be done? Occupational therapy responsibilities and challenges regarding human rights. Australian Occupational Therapy Journal 58 (2): 60–66.
Hammell, K.W. 2008. Reflections on … well-being and occupational rights. Canadian Journal of Occupational Therapy 75 (1): 61–64.
Hammell, K., and M. Iwama. 2012. Well-being and occupational rights: An imperative for critical occupational therapy. Scandinavian Journal of Occupational Therapy 19 (5): 385–394.
Health Professions Act 56 of 1974. Retrieved August 29, 2017 from http://www.hpcsa.co.za/Uploads/editor/Userfiles/downloads/legislations/acts/health_professions_ct56_1974.pdf.
Hess-April, L.A., J. Smith, and J. De Jongh. 2016. Exploring occupational therapy graduates’ conceptualisations of occupational justice in practice: Curriculum implications. African Journal of Health Professions Education 8 (2): 184–188.
HPCSA. 2008. Ethical and professional rules of the Health Professions Council of South Africa as promulgated in Government Gazette R717/2006 – Guidelines for good practice in the health care professions (Booklet 2). Pretoria: Health Professions Council of South Africa.
Lachman, V.D. 2012. Applying the ethics of care to your nursing practice. Medsurg Nursing 21 (2): 112–116.
Lauckner, H.M., T.M. Krupa, and M.L. Paterson. 2011. Conceptualizing community development: Occupational therapy practice at the intersection of health services and community. Canadian Journal of Occupational Therapy 78 (4): 260–268.
Mathie, A., and G. Cunningham. 2002. From clients to citizens: Asset-based community development as a strategy for community-driven development. Occasional Paper Series, 4.
Nortjé, N., and J. De Jongh. 2017. Professionalism: A case for medical education to honour the societal contract. South African Journal of Occupational Therapy 47 (2): 41–44.
Nortjé, N., and W.A. Hoffmann. 2015. Ethical misconduct of HPCSA registered occupational therapists in South Africa. South African Journal of Occupational Therapy 45 (3): 55–57.
OTASA (Occupational Therapy Association of South Africa). 2005. Code of ethics and professional conduct. Pretoria: OTASA.
Parasyn, C. (2005). Aharenmen! Who better understands a community than those who live in it? Retrieved April 16, 2010, from http://www.engagingcommunities2005.org/abstracts/Parasyn-Christina-final.pdf.
Ramugondo, E.L. 2012. Intergenerational play within family: The case for occupational consciousness. Journal of Occupational Science 19 (4): 326–340.
Ramugondo, E.L., and F. Kronenberg. 2013. Explaining collective occupations from a human relations perspective: Bridging the individual-collective dichotomy. Journal of Occupational Science 20 (3): 1–14.
Reid, S.J. 2002. Community service for health professionals. South African Health Review. Durban: Health Systems Trust. South African Journal of Occupational Therapy 47 (2): 41–44.
Russel, C. 2016. Sustainable community development: From what’s wrong to what’s strong. Retrieved 15 October 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5xR4QB1ADw&t=680s.
Townsend, E., and A. Wilcock. 2004. Occupational justice and client-centered practice: A dialogue in progress. Canadian Journal of Occupational Therapy 71 (2): 75–87.
Van der Merwe, T. 2010. Occupational therapy and the quest for human dignity: Why human rights matter. South African Journal of Occupational Therapy 40 (1): 17–21.
Vermeulen, N. 2015. Students’ fieldwork experiences of using community entry skills within community development. South African Journal of Occupational Therapy 45 (2): 51–55.
WHO (World Health Organisation). 1978. Primary health care. Report of the International Conference on Primary Health Care, Alma Ata. Geneva: WHO.
Further Reading
Banks, S., A. Armstrong, K. Carter, H. Graham, P. Hayword, A. Henry, T. Holland, C. Holmes, A. McNulty, N. Moore, N. Nayling, A. Stokoe, and A. Strachan. 2013. Everyday ethics in community based participatory research. Contemporary Social Sciences 8 (3): 263–277.
Swanepoel, H., and F. De Beer. 2011. Community development: Breaking the cycle of poverty. fifth ed. Lansdowne: Juta and Co Limited.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
De Jongh, JC., Hess-April, L., Vermeulen, N. (2018). Reflecting on Ethics in Occupational Therapy Within Community Development Practice in South Africa. In: Nortjé, N., De Jongh, JC., Hoffmann, W. (eds) African Perspectives on Ethics for Healthcare Professionals. Advancing Global Bioethics, vol 13. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93230-9_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93230-9_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-93229-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-93230-9
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)