Occupational Therapy Assistant / Careers in Occupational Therapy

What does an Occupational Therapy Assistant do?
Occupational therapy is a rehabilitation profession that serves clients of all life-stages who experience deficits in self-care, education, work, and leisure activities. Occupational therapy services are offered to clients in hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, school districts, psychiatric programs, out-patient clinics, home health agencies, and community-based programs. Occupational therapy is a profession that blends medical sciences, social sciences, and creativity into a science-based therapy aimed at restoring or improving daily living skills. A Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant (COTA) works in collaboration with Registered Occupational Therapists (OTR) to gather client information and administer therapy interventions to help clients regain the ability to do the everyday activities that are meaningful and necessary for daily life at home, school, and work. COTAs usually work on teams with other professionals, such as physical therapists, speech therapists, doctors, nurses, social workers, and teachers.

Job Outlook
The job outlook for COTAs is excellent. The US Department of Labor predicted a 27% growth in employment for occupational therapy between 2004 and 2014. A 2006 survey of occupational therapy assistant program directors showed that 94% of graduates were able to secure employment within eight weeks of graduating. One of the unique aspects of the occupational therapy profession is the wide variety of settings in which one could work. For example, a COTA might work in a school district to help improve coordination in children with developmental disorders; in a psychiatric department with adolescents dealing with schizophrenia who need to improve their social skills; at a rehabilitation hospital helping adults get in and out of the shower after hip surgery; or at a nursing home teaching stroke survivors how to feed themselves again. These are just a few of the applications of Occupational Therapy.

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