Returning to participation in everyday life after disability : A discussion of adaptation, transition and occupation

The aim of this article is to explore the concepts of adaptation and transition as concepts to be used when thinking about recovery processes of occupational lives of persons with disabilities. It posits that the term transition denotes the overarching idea that people strive towards getting their occupational life back on track and that adaptation refers to the redressive and remedial procedures of mitigating the effects of impairments to occupational functioning. This article argues that these concepts grasp the efforts made for people to overcome specific difficulties as well as the longitudinal aspects of revitalizing participation in everyday activities. Furthermore, the importance of this article is that this kind of knowledge, which generally is reflective of the perspectives of the person(s) involved in these processes, is likely to inform more effective client-centered occupational therapy services