Abstract:

This study assesses marketing strategies that can be adopted in marketing occupational therapy (OT); ascertains the target of OT marketing efforts and identified the barriers to client-centredness in OT. All these were with the view to investigate the extent to which marketing OT services influence client-centredness in Nigeria. A purposive sampling technique was used to select 33 currently licensed and practicing OT practitioners in Nigeria who responded to questions like the types of marketing strategies that OT can adopt, target for OT marketing efforts, the extent to which marketing OT can influence client-centredness, and barriers to client-centredness in OT. Data were summarized using descriptive statistics while the major objective of the study was tested using a one-way analysis of variance. The results of this survey showed that marketing strategies like building relationships with physicians and professionals allied to medicine, improving quality of service and professionalism, and digital marketing/internet have a significant effect on client-centredness in terms of occupational therapists’ desire for professionalism in practice, and respect for client’s subjective experience in occupational performance; targets for OT marketing efforts are clients, physicians and professionals allied to medicine, donors, community services, business managers, developers and investors, policy makers, insurance companies, and attorneys; and barriers to client-centredness in OT are inefficiency of the facility, lack of client demand to contribute during goal-setting and decision making, clients are not aware of client-centredness, indifference and lack of motivation of clients toward achieving occupational performance amongst others. In conclusion, marketing occupational therapy services can significantly affect client-centredness in Nigeria.

Keywords: Client-centredness, Marketing, Nigeria, Occupational therapy, Services.

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