[PR-1-2] From anti-stigma to inclusion: Innovative course design for occupational therapy students in Taiwan
Background and Purpose: Occupational therapists work with people with various diseases, including physical, psychological, and developmental disabilities, to enhance their social participation and quality of life. However, people with disabilities are likely to be stigmatized in the society and their independent living and social participation are thus limited. Therefore, we developed a course named “Inclusive Service Design” to deepen students’ reflection on stigma and provide systematic tools to enable students to turn their anti-stigma ideas into action.
Methods: An 18-week, 2-credit “Inclusive Service Design” course was developed for occupational therapy students based on literature review and focus group interview. The course integrated the concept of inclusion, service design, and design thinking. Questionnaires on stigmatizing attitudes and Social Distance Scales were used to measure students’ attitudes before and after the course. Wilcoxon Rank-Sum test was used to compare the before- and after-course scores.
Results: The course was offered for two consecutive years to 40 students in total. Students showed slight decreases of stigmatizing attitudes and social distances after the course in most of the measures, but the decrease was only significant in the social distance towards people with mental illness (Z = -2.06, p < .05).
Conclusions: The “Inclusive Service Design” course aimed to enhance students’ awareness of stigma and their motivation for social inclusion. We found that this course has the potential to decrease students’ social distance towards mental illness. Future work is needed to continually refine and evaluate the course.
Methods: An 18-week, 2-credit “Inclusive Service Design” course was developed for occupational therapy students based on literature review and focus group interview. The course integrated the concept of inclusion, service design, and design thinking. Questionnaires on stigmatizing attitudes and Social Distance Scales were used to measure students’ attitudes before and after the course. Wilcoxon Rank-Sum test was used to compare the before- and after-course scores.
Results: The course was offered for two consecutive years to 40 students in total. Students showed slight decreases of stigmatizing attitudes and social distances after the course in most of the measures, but the decrease was only significant in the social distance towards people with mental illness (Z = -2.06, p < .05).
Conclusions: The “Inclusive Service Design” course aimed to enhance students’ awareness of stigma and their motivation for social inclusion. We found that this course has the potential to decrease students’ social distance towards mental illness. Future work is needed to continually refine and evaluate the course.