Education in Occupational Therapy in the Art & Health Interface: the PACTO experience

Abstract

This paper presents the education work offered in the Occupational Therapy Program developed by the Laboratory of Studies and Research in Art, Body and Occupational Therapy of FMUSP. The Laboratory conducts teaching and research activities, in the didactic-assistancial field, with groups and individuals accompaniment for heterogeneous population through the Artistic Compositions and Occupational Therapy Permanent Program (PACTO) and through partnerships made with projects in the art/health interface. Students experiences are sheltered and elaborated in team discussion, weekly supervisions, study groups and theme-deepening seminars. The education qualifies students to: understand and build up practices in the art/health interface under an occupational therapy's perspective; questioning the approaches in the art/health interface in healthcare spaces and in cultural spaces; comprehend social and institutional relations and institutional transformation processes; understanding the occupational therapists' participation in cultural policies and health humanizing policies. We chose to report and scoring aspects of the work done in recent years (2003-2008) in which some teaching strategies were consolidated and showed its effects on students' education and professional exercise. In the Occupational Therapy field there is an increase in the possibilities for professional performance linked to the issues of cultural production, in trans-disciplinary projects dealing with constructing inclusive social networks, with collective participation and production of subjectivity.