Should we trade person-centered service for a consumer-based model?

W e owe Bowen (1996) a debr. Her question, "Should occupational therapy adopt a consumer-based model of service delivery [for the sake of increased collaboration with patients]" (p. 899), warrants deep consideration. The question presses past semantics to challenge the ethos of our profession. It is thus, for me, a question of substance. My inquiries into the nature of the patient-therapist relationship, the history of service in our profession, the nature and demise of moral treatment, the character of occuparional therapy, the art of practice, the fullness of empathy in occupational therapy, the climate of caring, and the facrors that can depersonalize practice have introduced me to a heritage that transcends the best of consumer-based models. I fear-Bowen's (1996) aim to empower persons norwithstanding-that occupational therapy would languish if regard for persons were traded for deference to their claims as consumers. The adoption of a consumer-based model poses such a risk. Let me explain.