The 2000 Eleanor Clarke Slagle Lecture. Our mandate for the new millennium: evidence-based practice.

The health care environment of the past quarter century went through numerous evolutionary processes that affected how occupational therapy services were provided. The last iterations of these processes included requests for the evidence that supported what we were doing. This year's Eleanor Clarke Slagle Lecture (a) examines the strength of the evidence associated with occupational therapy interventions--what we do and how we do it--(b) raises dilemmas we face with our ethical principles when some of our practices are based on limited evidence, and (c) proposes a framework of continued competency to advance the evidence base of occupational therapy practice in the new millennium.