Introduction: Homelessness is a problem that has persisted for centuries, but has been increasing recently due to the lifestyle and progression of the society. Homeless people have been marginalised and they often do not know how to escape the situation they have found themselves in. Abroad, these people are assisted by medical teams including occupational therapists. However, the participation of occupational therapists in this field remains, both to the public and some occupational therapists and other healthcare workers, still quite unknown. Aim: The aim of this paper is to examine the most recent literature on occupational therapy in the field of homelessness. Methods: A literature review was conducted. Literature sources were sought in the period between December, 2022, and January, 2023, across five databases from Slovenia’s National and University Library netbook: CINAHL, Web of science, PubMed, OTseeker and COBISS. In the search, different keywords associated with occupational therapy and homelessness were used. The final analysis included articles published since 2012, accessible in full text and written in English or Slovenian. Results: The final number of articles included in the review was 11. By conducting a thematic analysis, we looked at four main topics: role of an occupational therapist as a member of a medical team, framework models and tools used by occupational therapists in their work, results of occupational therapy interventions and improvement in these fields, importance and guidelines of occupational therapy professionals for the work with the homeless population. Discussion and conclusion: Occupational therapists have an important role when it comes to working with the homeless population and represent an indispensable part of medical teams. From this perspective, they are important because of their unique view of people and their ability to be resourceful in their work. The majority of articles examined underline how important the role of occupational therapists is, and only a few articles include evidence on the performed interventions and their effectiveness. It was determined that occupational therapists use assessment tools and models, which are used with many different populations. Several authors provide guidelines for further work of occupational therapists and stress the importance of gathering data about the therapies performed. With the lack of literature on this topic in Slovenia, conclusions from this review may contribute to and assist Slovenian occupational therapists when conducting therapies with homeless users.
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