The development of inquiry methods in mental health occupational therapy: looking to the past to inform the future

© 2015 by Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.Since its inception as a profession in the United States in 1917, occupational therapy has used a range of ways of knowing and methods to develop its knowledge of the relationship between occupation and health. Ways of knowing are the understandings employed to answer questions, solve problems and generally explain the world. There are three main ways of knowing in occupational therapy: theoretical, evidentiary and practice. These ways of knowing are supported by methods of inquiry, which allow researchers to answer specific research questions in the most appropriate manner. This chapter will recount the development of methods of inquiry in mental health occupational therapy over the past eighty years, as recorded in peer reviewed journals. The chronological development and emergence of these methods will be described, along with their uses in support of the three ways of knowing. The implications of this history for research advances in occupational therapy (both within mental health and other areas of practice) will be critically analysed throughout, and recommendations for future development offered.