The use of therapeutic gaming by occupational therapists at Chris Hani Baragwanath academic hospital

Abstract

This study was born out of a lack of data on the use of therapeutic gaming by occupational therapists in South Africa. A qualitative descriptive exploratory case study was used with semi-structured interviews as the main research tool. Ten occupational therapists employed at Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital were interviewed to determine the factors motivating and limiting the use of therapeutic gaming in therapy, the fit of therapeutic gaming into the occupational therapy philosophy and their perception of evidence based practice in the use of therapeutic gaming at their setting. The following were identified as facilitators to therapeutic gaming use: peer support, routinising the use of therapeutic gaming, gaming is an occupation and lastly, it was fun and motivating. The following were identified as limiting factors: time constraints, limited knowledge, training and exposure to therapeutic gaming, the lack of suitability of therapeutic gaming for people with disabilities, and high costs associated with therapeutic gaming. Therapists followed the typical occupational therapy processes when using therapeutic gaming and perceive therapeutic gaming to be a good fit within the philosophy of occupational therapy. Therapists used a variety of strategies to determine the level of effectiveness of therapeutic gaming. These included research evidence, peer feedback, clinical experience and patient feedback. More research is needed in this area in the South African setting