An occupational therapy programme in a religious community in South Africa: a historical narrative.

The purpose of this paper was to describe an occupational therapy programme that addressed the needs of younger nuns as they faced the difficulties of caring for older nuns in a Dominican old-age home in South Africa. Weekly occupational therapy group sessions with the younger sisters over a 1-year period enabled them to cope with an elderly population who were struggling to adapt to life in an old-age home. Activity groups and individual sessions were run concurrently with the older sisters.