Introduction: Laos is a developing country in south east Asia. The current rehabilitation and health sector is characterised by fragmentation, poor access and quality of care. Occupational Therapy (OT) has a valuable contribution to make, however is not present in the country. It is therefore important to extend the reach of OT into such contexts
Objectives: To describe the experiences of imparting an OT approach to fieldworkers in a community based rehabilitation project in Attapeu, southern Laos.
Methods: Reflection of the core values and foundational principles underpinning the author’s identity as an OT. Pre-fieldwork and on-the-job training included OT perspectives and used the Person-Environment-Occupation Model to encourage wholistic consideration of client situations and identify potential client-concerted interventions.
Results: In a low resource setting with no prior exposure to OT, fieldworkers were able to integrate core values and underlying principles and demonstrate use of the PEO Model to facilitate client-centred Community Based Rehabilitation. Client interactions were characterised by care and compassion, trust was built. Fieldworkers demonstrated increased creativity and adaptability in problem solving to provide wholistic client-centred care.
Conclusion: Reminding ourselves of the core values and foundational principles underlying our identity is a valuable exercise for all OTs. It is essential to “go back to basics” when extending the reach of an occupational perspective to low resource settings or contexts where OT is not yet established.