The potential role of occupational therapy in the treatment of avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder.

Most individuals with avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID) never receive treatment, and treatment needs far exceed the current capacity of mental health services. Occupational therapy (OT) focuses on enhancing function in daily activities, including eating and feeding. Given OT's rich history in mental health and pediatric feeding disorder treatment, we spotlight the potential role of OT in ARFID treatment, current knowledge, and opportunities for future research. Through a preliminary exploratory inquiry involving a review of current literature and clinical practice, we investigated OT's current involvement, knowledge, and interprofessional collaborative practice gaps in ARFID treatment. While many occupational therapy practitioners (OTPs) engage in ARFID treatment, interventions lack rigorous evaluation, and there is limited evidence defining OT's distinct role in interprofessional ARFID treatment. OTPs are uniquely positioned to provide interventions for individuals with ARFID across the lifespan, though research is needed to evaluate the efficacy of OT interventions. Future research suggestions include standardizing OT approaches to ARFID treatment and conducting single-case experiments and randomized controlled trials to compare OT approaches with alternative methods. Recommendations to address practice gaps include enhancing ARFID education for OT students and practitioners and fostering a greater understanding of OT's role on the interprofessional team. PUBLIC SIGNIFICANCE: Individuals with ARFID face barriers to eating that impact their health and function. On a multidisciplinary team, OTPs can treat diverse client populations by identifying and addressing barriers to daily participation, such as physical impairments, trauma history, and environmental barriers. More research is needed to evaluate the efficacy of OT practices in ARFID treatment.

Using narrative to integrate anti-oppression into interprofessional collaborative practice competencies.

Many institutions of higher education have designed curricula for health professions learners based on the Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC) core competencies for interprofessional collaborative practice. As part of a periodic cycle of revision, in 2023, IPEC released revised competencies that, for the first time, explicitly embedded concepts of anti-oppressive practice. Curriculum designers seeking to revise their interprofessional learning activities to map onto the new competencies can benefit from the experience of a health professions graduate school in Boston, MA. Since 2021, faculty members and experts in justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion have revamped a required interprofessional education curriculum to include anti-oppression competencies. They targeted narrative elements of the courses like a common reading, case studies, and simulation scenarios for revision. By using narrative to introduce anti-oppression competencies like recognizing bias, analyzing systems of power, and intervening to mitigate microaggressions, course designers encouraged learners to cultivate reflection about their relationship to the care team, the patient, and the community.