Fourth Edition of Baum Book Published

“Occupational Therapy: Performance, Participation, and Well-Being, Fourth Edition,” is a comprehensive occupational therapy text that introduces readers to core knowledge in the profession and the foundations of practice—the occupations, person factors, and environment factors that support performance, participation, and well-being.

“This book encompasses the history of all the science that underpins the elements contributing to occupational performance,” says Carolyn M. Baum, PhD, OTR, FAOTA, who co-edited the book with Drs. Charles H. Christiansen and Julie D. Bass. More than 40 international scholars also contributed to the various chapters and learning modules in this edition, including Program faculty and clinicians Patricia Nellis, MBA, OTR/L, Susy Stark, PhD, OTR/L, FAOTA, and Timothy Wolf, OTD, MSCI, OTR/L.

“We have tied the content together with the Person-Environment-Occupation-Performance (PEOP) model and added a much stronger element of the environment than in previous editions. We added new chapters on theory, models, frameworks, classifications, and therapeutic use of self. Instead of having one chapter on the occupations across the lifespans, we have separate chapters on children and adolescence, adulthood, and elderhood. It’s a combined effort by leading researchers and clinicians to help students, faculty, and practitioners understand the everyday life issues of people,” Baum says.

Baum describes this new edition as being “contemporary and oriented around the knowledge that supports the understanding of occupational performance instead of the previous diagnostic focus.” The text, as did the prior editions, form the basis of the curriculum used in the Program of Occupational Therapy at Washington University School of Medicine. Over the last three years, several courses have used preprints of the chapters for testing, and each received positive feedback from the faculty and students. The new edition also bridges between biomedical and sociocultural models in the occupational therapy profession.

“One of the new chapters in particular focuses on participation on personal, organizational, and population levels. There is also a chapter on social determinates of health,” Baum says. “One of the most important things I do is editing, reviewing, and reading the literature of the field. I learn more about this profession and where it is going every time I work on a chapter. I am extraordinarily proud of this book and the body of knowledge it represents.”

“Occupational Therapy Performance, Participation, and Well-Being, Fourth Edition, is available in both hard cover and electronic form through SLACK International at http://bit.ly/1x7ESIm.