Occupational Role Performance in the Presence of Disability - A Qualitative Study of the Perceptions of a Group of Men over Sixty

Satisfactory performance in personally valued roles is known to be importantto a sense of purpose and well-being in everyday life yet there is little understandingof how the concept of role might be used by the role performer.People recovering from stroke frequently do not resume roles that they previouslyheld and valued yet this problem is often not effectively addressed inrehabilitation. This study used the conceptual framework of the OccupationalPerformance Model (Australia) (Chapparo & Ranka 1997) to examine how agroup of men perceived their own occupational role performance following adisabling stroke. Inductive analysis of the data showed that participants usedthe concept of role to organise their own occupational performance in termsof meaning personal abilities and time. This book uses the informationsuggested by the data to discuss the nature of occupational role performancein ways that develop and extend the construct of occupational performancerole as described by Chapparo and Ranka and other occupational therapyresearchers. It is addressed to health professionals health educators andresearchers who are working with people with chronic disability.