Community Engagement: Outcomes for Occupational Therapy Students, Faculty and Clients

The objective of this paper is to provide programme description and outcomes of the effectiveness of the Bridge Program for all three stakeholders. This uses mixed methods research design including descriptive and quantitative and qualitative one‐group pre‐test–post‐test designs. Instruments consisted of the Occupational Therapy Student and Mental Health Population Scale and the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure. Quantitative results support that graduate occupational therapy students gained research and clinical skills (n = 100; p = .000); clients increased performance and satisfaction toward goals (n = 113; p = .000) and faculty (n = 1) achieved goals related to teaching, service and scholarship. Programmes based on principles of community engagement can address the needs of the community, can provide outcomes that advance knowledge about community practice and can result in benefits for all stakeholders. This paper is limited to generalization and instrumentation and recommends an ongoing evaluation of other community engagement programmes involving all stakeholders in the future research. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Source: Occupational Therapy International - Category: Occupational Health Authors: Tags: Research Article Source Type: research