Senses of responsibility. A challenge for occupational and physical therapists in the context of ongoing...

The aim of this paper was to delineate different senses of responsibility in the therapeutic relationship between occupational and physical therapists and their patients, in the context of ongoing professionalization. To assist the analysis of the therapists' responsibilities, Ozar's guild and interactive relationship models were employed. The questions with regard to each model asked how the model might be used in order to describe the therapists' professional development in general, and specifically their professional responsibilities. Based on earlier findings, the professional development of the therapy groups has developed in line with both the guild and interactive models, i.e. some therapists have adopted the former and others the latter. Whether therapists in general, in recent years, have shifted their paradigm, and consequently also their choice of relationship model, is a question that necessitates further research. However, based on the results from the analysis here, it seems relevant to propose that therapists, with a renewed sense of urgency, should use Ozar's models as tools for reflection on the development of their professional responsibilities in the therapist-patient relationship, in the frame of a rehabilitation paradigm.