Group co-leadership by occupational therapy students in community centers: learning transitional roles

SUMMARY The experience of contact with community populations and settings at the beginning of fieldwork is essential in expanding the dimensions of non-traditional skills and roles for occupational therapy students. This article describes an initial fieldwork experience which builds on an occupational therapy group process course to enable students to supplement a community-based program with activities designed to meet a need of their group at the appropriate level of group interaction. Pairs of students select a receptive community site prior to the beginning of fieldwork to open dialog with the center's coordinator regarding performance areas, components, or contexts needed by the group. Working to assess the current programmatic offerings and desires of the participants for new activities and planning activities in collaboration with local staff, the students propose to conduct a series of five sessions addressing a theme desired or needed by the group. Upon immersion in the site's program, students are able to provide an in-depth assessment of the community group's psychosocial skill needs using the Group Level of Function Profile (Donohue, 2000).