My Why for Occupational Therapy

My elevator speech to a second year medical student: 

I would love to tell you about occupational therapy(OT)! OTs help people complete activities that they want and need to do. An occupation is anything you do during the day. Anyone who has difficulties completing their occupations or activities can receive our services, you do not have to have an injury to come see us!  We can see clients from birth to throughout their lifespan. In OT we use a top down approach with our clients, this means we see past the diagnoses and find out what really matters to our client. We can be found in various settings including: hospitals, schools, skilled nursing facilities, inpatient and outpatient rehab centers, and many other places! I look forward to working with you in the future! I hope you have a great day! 

I chose this profession because I have a big servant heart and love to help others. My mom started the Shine Ministry at our church which is for individuals with intellectual or physical disabilities. In this picture is my friend Caroline. Because of OT, she is able to go to be a cheerleader, she has a job, she is a model, and she is able to do whatever brings her joy! I have seen how much OT services have impacted Caroline, and I knew I wanted to be impactful like that for someone else. I also chose this profession because I love how we can be collaborative with our clients to help them find the best outcome. I loved working with clients when I was a PT tech. I loved getting to know them on a personal level, making them laugh, and being there for them to cheer them on as they progressed. I think it is important to advocate for all of our clients to allow them to participate in all of the occupations that they want to be a part of. In our foundations class we learned the term occupational justice, which means everyone has a right to participate in any occupation that they want. I want to be the one to help people get there, and I know through this profession I will be! 

American Occupational Therapy Association (Ed.). (2020). Aota 2020 occupational therapy code of ethics. The American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 74(Supplement_3). https://doi.org/10.5014/ajot.2020.74s3006

American Occupational Therapy Association (Ed.). (2023). About AOTA: Mission and Vision . Aota.org. Retrieved April 5, 2023, from https://www.aota.org/about/mission-vision