L is for Lifestyle Redesign®...

 

Lifestyle Redesign® is ‘a process of acquiring health promoting habits & routines in daily life” (Clark et al 1997- see Books tab at top of page)

 ‘Is the process of incorporating health-promoting habits & routines into your daily life. OTs look at how you “occupy” your time, and how the daily activities you engage in affect your overall health, wellness and life satisfaction”-USC OT Faculty Practice

 Four core beliefs of the OT profession informed the design of Lifestyle Redesign®:

• Occupation is life itself
• Occupation can create new visions of possible selves
• Occupation has a curative effect on physical and mental health and on a sense of life order and routine.
• Occupation has a place in preventive care. (Mandel et al 1999)

Earlier this year I visited the University of Southern California Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy in Los Angeles to learn more about Lifestyle Redsign® and to look at how it could be used to improve the hospital/home interface for older people. My visit was funded by a Winston Churchill Memorial Trust travel award (more on this when we get to W). This blog began as a record of my visit. I am continuing it to record my experiences following the visit and to reflect on my learning.

The ‘®’ symbol denotes that Lifestyle Redesign® is trademarked. This prevents anyone not fully qualified by USC from carrying out interventions called ‘Lifestyle Redesign’. The trademark was acquired by USC to protect the quality of research being done using this approach, not to prevent use of the methodology. Many OTs have drawn on the concept and this is welcomed, but programmes need to be entitled something different e.g. the Lifestyle Matters programme developed in the UK (Craig & Mountain 2007).