News from Finland
News from Finland, September 2011
In Finland there has been published a new book for occupational therapy students written by Tiina Hautala, Tuula Hämäläinen, Leila Mäkelä and Mari Rusi-Pyykönen. It is also a valid handbook for occupational therapist. The book consists of chapters for example on motivation, the social and sociocultural meaning of occupation and the therapeutic function in groups. Theoretical frames of reference are explained through practical examples. The publisher of the book is Edita. The writers have also worked in collaboration with the Finnish Association of Occupational Therapists (TOI).
Finnish healthcare is creating a national electrical archive of patient documentation. Unified system demands unified titling that has been agreed on nationally. The Finnish Association of Occupational Therapists has published a recommendation for use of the classification of occupational therapy in health care documentation.
The Finnish Association of Occupational Therapists has revised the ethical guidelines for occupational therapists. The ethical guidelines are categorized under four headlines; relationship between the therapist and the client, collaboration between OT´s and other professions, the professional development of OT`s and occupational therapy as a part of society.
Two new Occupational Therapy (OT) publications in Finland.
The Finnish Association of OT (TOI) has recently published an electronic book of guidelines for good OT assessment practices. Itcovers nationwide terminology and ethics, and gives guidelines for the OT assessment process. It will serve both professionals and customers
alike. TOI will also publish an occupational therapy study book in co-operation with Edita (a Nordic communication service). The bookwill be launched in April 2011 during the bi- annual TOI conference in Tampere.
Finnish OT knowledge spreads towards diverse expert organizations.
A recent nomination was for Special OT Tuula Talvinko. She started ascoordinator in TEKES (Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and
Innovations), for the program of innovations in social and healthcare services. The program aims to renew Finnish social and healthcare
production processes, improve the availability of services and their quality and effectiveness and promote new business opportunities. ‘
OTs are also active in an innovation program called Vake-hanke with Kela (The Social Insurance Institution of Finland) in research and
development for good rehabilitation practices for severely handicapped people. For example OTs in neuropediatric units of two University
hospitals in Helsinki and Turku have surveyed Cerebral Palsy assessments and rehabilitation in multiprofessional teams (child
neurologists, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech therapists, neuropsychologists, nurses and social workers) and
selected the most valid outcome measures based on the available evidence, expert opinion and ICF framework.
A new Toimia database has been released in Jan 21st 2011.
Www.toimia.fi is a new national open database and specialist network.
The database contains recommendations for measures and assessment
methods, which have been analyzed and described for their key
purpose.