The Literature Review for Future Direction of Geriatric Occupational Therapy in Korea -Focused on health, medical and welfare policy direction, and the Japanese occupational therapy-
21세기에는 본격적인 노인시대가 열릴 전망으로, 인구학적 변화에 따른 보건복지 국가정책방향에 대한 노인 작업치료의 효율적인 준비가 절대적으로 필요하다. 먼저 고령화 사회로 진입한 일본에서의 작업치료가 국가의 복지서비스방향에 따라서 변화하고 발전해온 것을 참고하기 위하여 우리나라와 일본의 보건의료복지서비스 정책, 작업치료사의 연도별 추이, 취업 현황, 교육 상황을 비교 하여서 노인작업치료의 발전방향과 준비를 위한 기초 자료를 제시하고자 하였다.앞으로 우리나라의 노인보건의료정책이 급속한 고령화에 따른 제반문제에 효율적, 합리적으로 대처해 나가길 바라며, 노인작업치료가 이러한 사회적 변화를 주도해 나가기 위한 더 많은 연구가 진행되기를 바란다.
Since service containing occupational therapy for the elderly is closely related not only to in-dividual therapy but also to national policies due to the growing population of the old, we need to set the productive direction for geriatric occupational therapy in accordance with national policies. We intended to provide basic data for efficient preparation for geriatric occupational therapy by comparing the Japanese situation to Korea’s. We used the Japanese cases to study health, medical and welfare service policies, institution for the old, annual state of occupational therapists, employ-ment and training for therapist in order to refer to the fact that Japanese occupational therapy has been changed and developed in accordance with the national welfare service direction. The direction of geriatric occupational therapy should be set along not only with preparation for and response to the national health, medical and welfare policies but also with fundamental actions through changed training in occupational therapy institutes. We hope that Korea’s geriatric health and medical poli-cies will rationally and efficiently cope with various problems caused by the growing population of the old, and further, geriatric occupational therapy will lead the social changes.