News / France - September 2008

The national association of occupational therapy in France (ANFE) had a fruitful year (2007-2008). Some major events have seen the day!

 

National Alzheimer Plan

The 8th of November 2007, a commission presided by Pr Menard had presented some proposals for the national plan ‘fight against Alzheimer disease’.

To elaborate those proposals, the commission Menard had asked for the help and suggestions of the ANFE. Therefore, the ANFE, in cooperation with the French Association of OT in Geriatry (AFEG), had proposed a complete document to the ministry of health, showing the necessity to develop specialised services where occupational therapists and other professions interact. OT action is mostly attended in home-adaptations and cognitive rehabilitation. The document showes a need of more OT’s in this fieldwork and an intensification of the neuroscience courses.

 

National Conference

The 3rd and 4^th of April 2008, the ANFE hold its first national conference of Occupational Therapy in France.

More than 700 Occupational Therapists had gathered to think about the development of the profession and to work on the position of OT in health policy. The different associations representing French OTs got together and exchanged, elaborating a lot of fruitful ideas during two days.

The final product of this congress: the ‘livre blanc’ or ‘white book’ makes ten professional proposals to achieve our goals for OT within the next ten years.

The objective of this publication is to propose a suitable, responsible and progressing occupational therapy for the French population in the future.

 

Goals of the ANFE for 2008/2009

Because of the continous development of the OT profession, a lot of work will have to be done in the next year. Therefore, new goals have been formulated:

• Develop the publication of OT books on a national scale ;

• Organise the first ‘week of Occupational therapy’;

• Create a platform collecting the final dissertations of the OT students ;

• Continue the creation of a library at the association ;

• Promote the ‘livre blanc’ ;

• Support research in OT ;

• Continue the work on adapting the actual OT studies to an university level ;

• Choice whether or not to create an “ordre de l’ergothérapie” = a professional order of occupational therapy with legal standing ;

• Actualise the website (www.anfe.fr)

• Support the creation of a new OT-school ;

• Change of building of the National Association

• Create ‘Ergoscope’, a communicationtool for OTs.

February 2006

ANFE is involved in many actions as usual. Here are some of them:  

ANFE Project for 2005-2006:  

1. Review of the organisation of medical careers (with other professional associations). The new Ministry would tend to a Licence Degree connected with the actual diploma.  

2. Editorial Board   few months ago a board of volunteers was created with the aim of publishing more books for OTs. First the board sent a survey to French OTs to find out what they expect from the board. The 270 answers confirmed the need for a greater Internet presence and the demand for publishing specialist books, especially on rehabilitation.  

The Editorial Board defined its aims 

short term  

- distribution of books in French by the ANFE,  

- contact of potential contributors,  

- complete the collection of «Advice books»,  

- develop the topic of rehabilitation.  

long term   

- translation of English books into French  

- launch of an Internet page  

- promote the writing of articles.  

3. Evaluation of professional practice  

As part of the accreditation process ANFE is writing the second book on the Evaluation of Professional Practice. OTs have to implement this evaluation in the actual social, medical and economic context, in order to justify their actions and highlight their competences.  

4. “Department House for Disabled People”  

The 97 Departments in France are each founding Houses for Disabled People during the first months of the year. It is a very challenging project for OTs because 500 jobs should be created for our profession. (There are 5000 OTs working in France nowadays) These houses aim at informing and assessing the users,  and supporting disabled people’s rights. This single project should make the disable people’s approach easier and include all the previous French health administrative branches  (CDES,COTOREP,DDASS,...)  

Goals :  

- define the life project - evaluate needs  

- design a compensation plan  

- give and follow up the compensation defined, which depends on the needs expressed by the person or his/her legal representative. (technical, human help, house or car’s modification…..)  

The aim is to have a multi-dimensional assessment of all aspects of life for disabled people, according to ICF, then to collect and organize all the information for each person. These multidisciplinary teams evaluate the patient’s needs by visiting them at their home. It includes at least a social workert, a doctor, an OT, a psychologist, a technician,...

News from France september 2010

From the end of 2009 till the summer holidays of 2010 French Occupational Therapy has experienced a very important incidence as a health science profession in the country. Through a hard work from its national association members, our profession is now a bit more recognized  by some relevant national institutions and health programs.

One of these achievements has been the final elaboration, after 2 hard-working years, of a whole Summary of the Profession, by which official and qualitative standards of practice have been recognized and approved by the Haut Conseil de Professions Paramedicales (Allied Health Professionals Council). Occupational Therapy has been the second discipline in completing this demand. Like this, the profession’s competencies and technical skills are guaranteed and differentiated from other related professions.

Besides this, we need to mention that the elaboration of a new program by the OT High schools has recently been completed and approved by   the Health minister. The basis of these structural adaptations has been established taking into account the new Summary of the profession, explained above and of course the recent European common standards established by the Bologna program.

Furthermore,  the consolidation of a national health program started a couple of years ago, the Alzheimer Plan, has contributed to make  Occupational Therapy  be more recognized as a profession because of its proved contributions to the treatment and the management of this condition. We could say that OT is one of the main health professions leading this program.

In addition, a new national account on the management of adult stroke care by the French Higher Health Authorities, has either considered Occupational Therapy’s function as really necessary, advantageous and beneficial.

Besides these topics, it’s relevant to explain the important lack of qualified professionals in the country while on the other hand, there’s an increasing professional demand in every background, against which ANFE is preparing special action to try to promote the arrival of European OT practitioners.

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