Content area
Full Text
In late October 2003, the Board of Directors of the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) embarked on a strategic planning initiative. As the first step in this long-term process, the Board endorsed the development of a Centennial Vision designed to be a road map for the future of the profession to commemorate the Association's 100th anniversary in 2017.
It is the goal of the Association to ensure that individuals, policymakers, populations, and society value and promote occupational therapy's practice of enabling people to improve their physical and mental health, secure well-being, and enjoy higher quality of life through preventing and overcoming obstacles to participation in the activities they value.
The Association launched an ambitious effort in 2004 involving stakeholders from throughout the world to identify known trends in population demographics, science, technology, and health care. Based on these trends, and with the assistance of futurists at the Institute for Alternative Futures in Washington, DC, four planning scenarios were constructed to guide thinking about change and to anticipate conditions that will provide opportunities and challenges for occupational therapy in the years ahead.
These scenarios were used to foster a profession-wide dialogue during 2005 among occupational therapists and occupational therapy assistants, among educators and students, and among recipients of service in several...