Complex Interventions and Complex Systems in Occupational Therapy: an Alternative Perspective

摘要

Health care matters are frequently described as 'complex', with some examples being caring (Yonge and Molzahn 2002, McQueen 2004), suffering related to health care (Arman et al 2004), spouses' views of rehabilitation after coronary heart disease (Karner et al 2004) and help seeking (Galdas et al 2005). Within occupational therapy, culturally sensitive practice (Dyck and Forwell 1997), personality disorder (Higdon 1990) and clinical reasoning (Cohen 1991) have also been defined as complex. However, in all these publications the term 'complex' appears to have been used in a general and colloquial manner to describe issues that were difficult to understand or resolve. None of these authors tried to spell out exactly what he or she meant by 'complex' or to Identify the criteria for determining what counted as a complex phenomenon. There was, in summary, nothing particularly technical about any of these contributions.