Background
The health workforce is a key pillar of the health
systems.1,2 In turn, occupational therapists are
healthcare professionals who aim to meet health, rehabilitation, and
occupational needs of the population.3,4 To do so, the
occupational therapy workforce must satisfy supply requirements, be
equitably distributed (e.g., across geographic areas, service levels),
and meet key competency standards.3 The development of
the occupational therapy workforce worldwide has, however, been
inconsistent across nations, even among those of similar income level.
For instance, recent workforce data collated by the World Federation of
Occupational Therapists (WFOT) shows that Italy has less than one-tenth
of the population-adjusted occupational therapists than
Denmark.5 In turn, the same dataset indicates that 54
out of 89 countries – many of which are low- and middle-income
countries (LMICs) – had less than one occupational therapist per 10,000
inhabitants, with a per capita supply of up to 22,000 times less than
Denmark’s.5 Furthermore, occupational therapy
workforce research also has shown inequitable distributions of
occupational therapists within geographic areas (e.g., rural versus
urban), sectors (e.g., public or private) or services (e.g., mental
versus physical health) of the same country.6-8
The insufficient supply and inequitable distribution of the occupational
therapy workforce occurs against a backdrop of an ageing population and
a rise in burden of non-communicable conditions and disability,
globally.9-14 For example, a 17% increase was
observed in the world’s physical rehabilitation needs per capita from
1990 to 2017.13,15 Hence, a high and increasing global
disability burden exists for an insufficient supply and inequitable
distribution of the occupational therapy workforce.
In the abovementioned context, the WFOT initiated a process to develop a
global strategy toward strengthening the worldwide occupational therapy
workforce. The process began with the development of a three-pronged
scoping review of the occupational therapy workforce
research.16 First, we examined the global status of
occupational therapy workforce research by mapping the volume of
studies, as well as geographic areas addressed and the type of methods
used, including stratifying funded and non-funded
research.17 Second, we identified the types of
findings that were generated by the occupational therapy workforce
research worldwide, including trends in topics across
nations.18 Lastly, limitations and future
recommendations reported by the included papers were summarized and
identified as possible facilitators or barriers for the strengthening of
the occupational therapy workforce.19
In this short communication , we aim to build on this acquired
knowledge, as well as on findings of an external environmental scan and
feedback provided by experts, to perform a situational assessment of the
development of occupational therapy workforce and its research - toward
informing a global human resources strategy for strengthening the
profession.