The Occupational Therapy Research Unit is committed to ensuring a high quality of occupational therapy solutions in the health care domain. Projects take up research questions from health care practice, which are addressed in close cooperation with partners. The results flow back into practice through our degree and continuing education programmes as well as publications.

• Development and evaluation of new technologies, innovative therapeutic approaches, and care models to enable mobility, health, inclusion, and/or participation.
• Studies on the effectiveness of occupational therapy in children and adults with, or at risk of, impaired ability to undertake everyday activities, e.g. in the case of neurological, psychiatric, and paediatric diseases or old age.
• Issues related to the perspective of those affected. For example, how do patients/clients and their families experience life with a chronic illness or disability, and healthcare in Switzerland.
• Development and evaluation of models, interventions, processes, and tools that allow the inclusion of people with disabilities.
• Translation and validation of assessments used for quality assurance and to monitor effectiveness, or to specify impairment of the ability to act.

Insight into occupational therapy research (Research Report 2021) (in German only)

The Occupational Therapy Research Unit prioritises projects that enable people with restricted abilities to achieve more autonomy and participation concerning self-sufficiency, education, work, leisure activities, and social life.

All Occupational Therapy Research Unit projects and publications are listed in the ZHAW project and publication database by their start date or publication date.

At the Occupational Therapy Research Unit, our team is composed of occupational therapy, medical education, sociology, healthcare management, and quality development specialists with extensive experience as practitioners and R&D experts in Switzerland and abroad.