As we begin celebrating Occupational Therapy month this April, we have an opportunity to reflect on the past year. A worldwide pandemic filled our professional and personal lives with unprecedented chaos, fear, and loss. Even through this challenging time – Functional Pathways continued to provide therapy services that exceeded expectations. Resident identification and treatment became more imperative now as individuals were confined with less visibility to staff and limited contact with family and friends.
Occupational Therapy emerged as a profession in 1917 in the U.S when the National Society for Promotion of Occupational Therapy was created. This later evolved into the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA). This association was established with the belief in remedial properties of human occupation. This therapy played a vital role in the treatment of patients suffering with AIDS, polio, tuberculosis, and other illnesses. OT serves as a holistic approach to rehabilitation incorporating both psychiatric and physical dysfunction components. How ironic that 104 years later, the world would be thrown into a COVID-19 pandemic. The role of OT continues to be multi-dimensional as we face a world of social distancing and isolation.
As a member of the Occupational Therapy profession, you help individuals across the lifespan participate in the daily occupations which bring meaning and value to their lives. Your holistic and customized approach offer the specialized support and services Occupational Therapy can provide. During the past year, you have served not only as a healthcare practitioner, but also as vital support to meet not only the physical needs of your clients, but also the tremendous psychosocial toll brought by the pandemic.
As we begin to celebrate OT month, it is the perfect time to promote our profession. With our society’s increased use of social media, digital communications, and the Internet, promoting Occupational Therapy has never been easier. Whether you are a social media junkie or a newbie, our top 10 ideas will give you the information you need to start promoting OT online this month (and throughout the year). Because we know you are busy, we have sorted the ideas by the estimated time commitment for each—from as little as five minutes to a couple of hours.
- Share information about Occupational Therapy on social media sites and tag FP (5 minutes)
- Use the hashtags #OTMonth #FPStrong (5-10 minutes)
- Answer questions on public Q&A sites (15 minutes)
- Contact your legislators (15 minutes)
- Start pinning on Pinterest (20 minutes)
- Take and share pictures of OT in action (time commitment varies)
- Write a blog post about OT (30 minutes)
- Relate a story about OT on Wakelet (45 minutes)
- Record a podcast (1 hour)
- Create a video (A couple of hours)
Functional Pathways celebrates our Occupational Therapy practitioners as an essential part of the therapy team. Your dedication, creativity, and commitment to patient care is unwavering despite the challenges you faced both professional and personally. Celebrate your success and remember to document your experiences. Years from now, your wisdom will be used to guide the new generation of Occupational Therapy clinicians.