Spotlight: Moses Ikiugu, PhD, OTR/L
Dr. Moses Ikiugu is a professor of occupational therapy (OT) at the University of South Dakota with a diploma in OT from Kenya Medical Training College and a PhD in OT from Texas Woman’s University. Dr. Ikiugu has an extensive understanding of the field on an international scale. Decades of work on the relationships between climate change and human occupation make Dr. Ikiugu a pillar in the movement to entwine climate action and occupational therapy practice.
Recalling his upbringing in an agricultural community at the base of Mt. Kenya, Dr. Ikiugu underscores the detrimental impacts of climate change on local life. In the 1970s, droughts plagued the community, whose members’ livelihoods depended on the production of coffee. Dying crops resulted in widespread famine and suffering beyond the physiological level. With this first hand experience, Dr. Ikiugu immersed himself in readings on climate change after migrating to the United States in the mid 1990s. He compares a warming planet to a sick patient, and pointed out that human activities (occupations) were the root of the illness saying, “If we don’t do anything about it, we will be in trouble”.
Dr. Ikiugu’s career has consisted of countless contributions to discussions on climate change, human health, and occupations. He developed a model of the human phenomenon of the occupational perspective on climate change (Ikiugu, 2008; Ikiugu, Anderson, & Anderson, 2007; Ikiugu & McCollister, 2011). The model is represented by a wheel-shaped diagram with the human agent at the center. The spokes in the wheel denote daily activities that result in population-wide issues, such as material inequalities, population growth, poverty, diseases, institutional corruption, and environmental destruction.
According to the model, all spokes must be addressed for lasting solutions. In 2018, Dr. Ikiugu collaborated with an international team of occupational therapy practitioners and researchers to develop the World Federation of Occupational Therapists (WFOT) Sustainability Matters: Guiding Principles for Sustainability in Occupational Therapy Practice, Education, and Scholarship (WFOT, 2018). This document outlined five principles for incorporating sustainability in all aspects of occupational therapy. These principles include the following:
Understanding sustainability
Role of OT in contributing toward mitigation of environmental damage due to unsustainable lifestyles
Helping OT service users adapt to the consequences of environmental damage due to unsustainability
How we work with the community to empower them so they can address environmental problems in their local areas
Developing professional competence for administering occupation-based interventions to address sustainability issues
These principles and associated rationale highlight the potential of what OT practitioners can do and how these actions fall into the scope of the OT profession. Mitigation, adaptation, community empowerment, and competence development to address sustainability issues are all tied to the promotion of occupational justice. Beyond the realm of OT, Dr. Ikiugu helped develop a consensus statement with the International Association for Medical Education (AMEE) to include sustainable healthcare and planetary health in accreditation standards (Shaw et al., 2021).
Today, Dr. Ikiugu is working to disseminate ideas set forth by the WFOT and AMEE reports to empower therapists to reflect upon and adopt the proposed principles. To help promote such change, Dr. Ikiugu emphasizes the importance of joining advocacy groups, including sustainability content systemically in health professions curricula, and empowering students to work with clients on facilitating change.
Spotlight written by Madelyn Yoo
References
Ikiugu, M. N. (2008). Occupational science in the service of GAIA: An Essay describing a possible contribution of occupational scientists to the solution of prevailing global problems. Baltimore, MD: PublishAmerica.
Ikiugu, M., Anderson, L., & Anderson, W. (2007). Occupational science in the service of GAIA: A study of the impact of human occupational behavoir on global issues of our time. Found at https://www.academia.edu/20575457/Occupational_Science_in_the_Service_of_GAIA_A_study_of_the_Impact_of_Human_Occupational_Behavoir_on_Global_Issues_of_our_Time
Ikiugu, M. N., & McCollister, L. (2011). An occupation-based framework for changing human occupational behavior to address critical global issues. International Journal of Professional Practice, 2(4), 402-417.
Shaw, E., Walpole, S., McLean, M., Alvarez-Nieto, C., Barna, S., Bazin, K., Behrens, G., Chase, H., Duane, B., El Omrani, O., Elf, M., Faerron Guzmán, C.A., Falceto de Barros, E., Gibbs, T.J., Groome, J., Hackett, F., Harden, J., Hothersall, E.J., Hourihane, M., Huss, N.M., Ikiugu, M., Joury, E., Leedham-Green, K., MacKenzie-Shalders, K., Madden, D.L, McKimm, J., Schwerdtle, P.N., Parkes, M.W., Peters, S., Redvers, N., Sheffield, P., Singleton, J., Tun, S. & Woollard, R. (2021). AMEE Consensus Statement: Planetary health and education for sustainable healthcare. Medical Teacher, 43(3), 272-286, DOI: 10.1080/0142159X.2020.1860207
World Federation of Occupational Therapists. (2018). Sustainability matters: Guiding principles for sustainability in occupational therapy practice, education, and scholarship. https://wfot.org/resources/wfot-sustainability-guiding-principles