Developing a programme for people transitioning from work to retirement: An occupational therapy perspective

Retirement is one of the most complex transitions in a person’s life. Therefore, the im­portance of preparing for the transition from work to retirement has been emphasized. The aim was to develop a programme for people transitioning from work to retirement that will include an occupational therapy perspective. Methods: A scoping literature re­view and a needs analysis (survey) were conducted. The articles included in the analysis describe the role of occupational therapists in the transition from work to retirement. The findings from the articles and survey were used to develop a new pre-retirement programme that focused on occupational therapy content. The programme includes five thematic workshops on life balance, the search for new meaningful activities, a he­althy lifestyle, attitudes towards aging, and finances. The study shows that occupatio­nal therapy can make an important contribution to the development of pre-retirement programmes. However, when developing such transition programmes it is important to consider the issue of interdisciplinarity.