Making sustainability in occupational therapy visible by relating to the Agenda 2030 goals – A case description of a Swedish university

Abstract

Occupational therapy has a lot to contribute to sustainable development considering the discipline’s occupational focus and knowledge. This has been recognised by researchers and professional associations, but there is still a scarcity of research explicitly mentioning sustainability. Relevant contributions may be identified by relating education and research to the Agenda 2030 sustainable development goals. The aim of this article was to describe explicit and implicit inclusion of sustainable development and Agenda 2030 goals in occupational therapy education and research at one Swedish university. Current course syllabi and study guides, as well as research over the past five-year period, were examined and related to sustainability. The results showed that although only a few courses and articles were explicitly related to sustainable development, more course and research content became relevant when this content was compared with the sustainable development goals. It can be concluded that sustainability was more extensively addressed than first visible, but further studies including more universities are warranted.