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To-do list for Occupational therapy:

I am wondering on the salary, a lot of OT's I know work part time, and are paid by the hour. For instance most school based positions start at $40/hr here, it just seems a bit skewed on the data.

Add a section detailing educational and certification requirements to become an occupational therapist.
Include a section about COTA- Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant.
For some reason, someone not an OT I think who lives in NZ, removed the official way of writing our country name - have put it back to Aoteroa/New Zealand as it should read!
Statements in text should be cited. Please see Wikipedia:Citing sources -suggestion by: Jipy 23:39, 23 September 2007 (UTC) - Thanks - will do - have planned to come back to fix this up (Merrolee 20:38, 8 October 2007 (UTC))
History should be detailed. Names, places...etc added. -suggestion by: Jipy 23:39, 23 September 2007 (UTC)
I have made a new way for each WFOT member nation to put their own history and specific information. The main page was getting too crowded and this will turn people off using it. --VirtualOT (talk) 04:47, 4 November 2008 (UTC)
Add Frames of References
There is no FOR section yet, this would be good for the wikiflash activity being organised by Salford University --VirtualOT (talk) 07:00, 4 November 2008 (UTC)
Clarify the distinction between independence and interdependence. Clarify that one can be independent (or autonomous) without physically performing life tasks.
Add link to the ICF framwork of the World Health Organization. Clarify that OT enables participation, and emphasize the factors in the environment that restrict participation. (I agree --VirtualOT (talk) 07:05, 4 November 2008 (UTC))
Clarify the 'areas of occupational therapy.' The categories currently listed don't include all domains of practice, such as pediatrics, and it's strange to see neurology as it's own category. How about the following categories: physical, mental health, pediatrics, community based (working with seniors, etc), and emerging areas of practice (ergonomics, driver training, health promotion and wellbeing, disaster relief).
Further break down physical areas into sociocultural, environmental, etc...-suggestion by: Jipy 23:39, 23 September 2007 (UTC)
Perhaps note in which country you live when you write a case study. Some injuries or disabilities are more prevalent than in others which would help the reader understand that if they live in New Zealand, they are less likely to see people with gunshot injuries versus being in some other places where gunshot injury may be a huge part of the therapist's caseload.
As mentioned by someone else, make the article less U.S. based, and more global.
Make the language used to describe OT less jargon-ridden and more user friendly. <--I plan to work on that...-Jipy 23:39, 23 September 2007 (UTC)
I've just added a page on the Canadian Occupational Performance Model, so please edit and add to your hearts content User:daniellehitch (This is great, let's link to this from the main OT article now --VirtualOT (talk) 07:05, 4 November 2008 (UTC))

An area including aspects of the Practice Framework Document should be included, especially since it has replaced the ICF

some hiostory on the origin of Occupational Therapy
The State of Occupational Therapy in India
The role of occupational therapists working in developing countries, considered the 'majority' world
Extended Scope Practice and occupational therapy: OT's working with neonates, case management, health promotion, public policy

[edit] Globalise

Although there are some references to the UK it seems to me that the focus is on the USA. --Vince 16:59, 13 November 2006 (UTC)

I am in agreement that the two should be merged. 140.228.130.98 15:52, 14 December 2006 (UTC)

Make it less America based...

Hello everyone, I hope you don't mind that I added a few points for the To-Do list. I'm a Canadian who just completed my Masters in Boston, so I'm also interested in making the article more globally relevant. I'd be glad to work on this project as well, it's exciting to see O.T. in Wikipedia, although the current article looks to be taken straight from AOTA's website, and isn't very user friendly. Also, the examples used are a little strange (especially the gunshot wound one). Just my opinion :) Sameeraq 15:42, 20 December 2006 (UTC) Sameera

I agree - out of the four current case studies for one to be gunshot perhaps gives a misleading impression of what most occupational therapists do. Could we use a subject heading instead of upper limb rehabilitation, or describe it any differently? I'm a New Zealand occupational therapist who's worked in mental health, and currently work in community rehabilitation.

...I daresay that it is difficult to globalise OT since I believe different countries view it quite differently. Perhaps what needs to be done is for a bunch of us from different places to sit down, discuss and find out what is important to all of us. I'll be in and out. Later. Jipy (talk) 03:31, 20 October 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Ergotherapy

A synonym of "occupational therapy" that is used in Quebec is "ergotherapy". I don't know if the term is used elsewhere. Hugo Dufort 07:54, 22 November 2006 (UTC)

While one of occupational therapy's new area of specialization is ergonomics, I have never heard of that term. But if its widespread in your area, go ahead and add it in. At least that will make the article more globalized! :) --aishel 13:56, 22 November 2006 (UTC)

From my understanding, Ergotherapy is not actually used anywhere. It is a mistake often made by francophones trying to translate the French term Ergothérapie into its English equivalent Occupational Therapy. Studying Occupational Therapy in French, I have made that mistake myself.Ergo2007 02:56, 3 March 2007 (UTC)

This is not related to ergonomics; it is really an exact synonym of "occupational therapy". My mother works in that field.

The term is also used in Europe. See for example [1].

Here is the definition given by the Websters Online Dictionary:
ERGOTHERAPY: Any prescribed mutual or physical activity, such as hobbies, crafts, light household tasks. . . designed to aid the patient in his recovery from. . . any disease or disabling condition ; the teaching of useful skills or hobbies to sick or handicapped persons in order to promote their rehabilitation and recovery or to facilitate their ability to make a living ; any prescribed mutual or physical activity, such as hobbies, crafts, light household tasks designed to aid the patient in his recovery from any disease or disabling condition. Source: European Union.

The following article also mentions various synonyms of occupational therapy: [2]

Hugo Dufort 19:41, 22 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Copyright violation

Parts of this article are a word-for-word copy of this page. The original source clearly states a copyright claim and reserves all rights. While there are some attributions in the article, to the best of my knowledge, merely attributing something does not enable word-for-word copying. Looking at the article edit history, this is a long-standing problem with this article. That makes correction difficult, since it may be that not all of the article text is copyvio. Since I'm not familiar with the subject matter, I am unable to effectively edit the article to eliminate the copyright violations.

The specific parts I am looking at are:

The list of typical services in the introduction
The list of benefits
Several of the case studies

--DragonHawk 02:14, 16 December 2006 (UTC)

DragonHawk, I've been a big contributor to this article, and frankly, I've never noticed that there was a copyright infringement. I must say, I'm stupid for not checking out the links, and I took for granted that what was on the page already was original. I wrote a couple of the case studies myself, but I only added to what was there already. Anyway, now that I'm aware of this problem, I will begin editing this article, and attempt to make it original. I will probably start later tonight. --aishel 01:37, 17 December 2006 (UTC)

Ok, on the temp page, I put the two case studies that I had written several months ago, in addition to one more that I just wrote. I will work on the other two problems in the near future. I think that the article is nice, long, and informative, so the two small places that have been copied should not be a reason to delete the article altogether. --aishel 04:00, 17 December 2006 (UTC)

Hi Aishel. Thanks for taking this task on! I agree that an article on this subject should exist, and that there is definate value in contributions which do not violation any Wikipedia policies. So outright deletion of the whole article would be the wrong thing to do. Wikipedia is as much a process as anything else, so I suspect your work will be the foundation of the new article. Good for you! --DragonHawk 04:38, 17 December 2006 (UTC)

Addendum: I suspect that section 3 of the current article, "Philosophy of occupational therapy", is also a word-for-word copy of the cited source. It fits the pattern, and I find some of the text word-for-word in this MS-Word document (also available as HTML via Google). However, the original source is not available to me, so I cannot offer conclusive proof. --DragonHawk 04:42, 17 December 2006 (UTC)

I don't know too much about Wikipedia policy, but since there are only a few sections that are actually in copyright violation, I'm going to alter/delete those sections, instead of rewriting the entire article from scratch. --aishel 22:17, 17 December 2006 (UTC)

I've removed the entire case studies section since it's original research. MrVibrating (talk) 01:13, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Hand Therapy?

coming at this from a different angle, I don't see what seems to be at least a de facto assumption among insurers and MDs, i.e. that occupational therapy = therapy for hand damage, comparable to physical therapy for the rest of the body, aside from the actual "occupational" part which you would expect from the name. ?? Gzuckier 18:56, 26 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Why this link to mandalas for the senior people ?

Free Mandalas ready to print and coloring for senior people

On the Link of above I want to emphasize two things:

1) Despite it exist many mandalas for coloring in the bookstores and Internet; mandalas along with their color scheme as a model, does not occur with as much frequency.

Logically this does not mean that the color scheme is obligatory, but this scheme can be useful to motivate to coloring mandalas, also to the people who do not consider themselves as artists; these people could be motivated with the benefit of to see as of their hands leaves a well done and beautiful work , regardless of who has designed it.

2) thinking about people of great age with sensorial difficulties, the color schemes there are intended to avoid two colors too much similar each to the other.

Because the specificity of this gratuitous contribution, and the casuistical interest of the personal experience of the holder of the web page, I include that link in the External Links section of the article ( to go to the mandalas you have to click the link "to the mandalas" at the end of that page).

This has nothing to do with OT, so I removed it. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Aishel (talk • contribs) 14:33, 16 March 2007 (UTC).

I am not OT specialist, so that I want to ask to the one which read this and know about OT: they are correct Aishel's reasons to delete my link to "mandalas for the senior people" ?

The reason why I come to this article has been the positive feedback from the use of mandalas whith senior people betwen OT professionals here in Europe.

It is correct to hide a free contribution from a "real" and positive vital experience ?

To be wise implies to be to such distance of the human beings ?

[edit] Order of Associations

I've just adjusted the order of this section of the page - so the associations are now all listed in alphabetical order. If I can find the All India OT association, I will change their text to a hyperlink so people can find them! (merrolee)

[edit] Help with OTA

Hello everyone,

       I am going into OTA and there is no information on Wikipedia on OTA. Could you please add some information about OTA? I would also like to know what are the different areas an OTA can specialize in. I would realy appreciate it.

Sincerely, Alex --216.60.12.197 19:26, 13 April 2007 (UTC)

Alex, If you are now a OTA.. please fill us in! :) Willwade (talk) 23:32, 6 November 2008 (UTC)

Occupational Therapy Associations list. American Occupational Therapy Association PI Theta Epsilon- occupational therapy honors society. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.233.185.11 (talk) 03:41, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Philosophy

Hi there, I hope my changes in the philosophy of OT are alright and that I haven't made the changes too abruptly. I really do mean well but I didn't quite know how to incorporate the previous philosophy, nor do I know where it had come from. The changes are based on a book by Townsend and Polatajko and published by the CAOT (Canadian Association of OTs). I hope to find sources on the history of OT and the paradigm shifts and to include them too. I also recommended that there be more in text citations...just since people would want to know exactly where all the information comes from. But thanks for the page thus far. It assisted me in giving me a taste in what OT is about.

Jipy 07:31, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

Hi,

I've just added some more to the philosophy part, and I'd really love some feedback - revisions - alterations. I'm working on adding some more pages and contributions, and I'm working these up as part of a Masters Degree in Writing. Any suggestions for possible content would be greatly appreciated.

Dani Hitch - 08/10/2007 Daniellehitch 06:22, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Areas of OT

For physical...should it be divided up into sociocultural, physical and environmental? Physical, or my experience of it tends to indicate more of an orthopedic/bodily realm. While sociocultural has more to do with the people around the person, and environmental would be the actual environment the person is in. Just a thought.

Jipy 07:52, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

Where would you put managing with chronic pain? To me it's both 'physical' and 'mental' and 'sociocultural', and the effect of chronic pain is clearly in terms of occupational engagement. Adiemusfree (talk) 04:59, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

[edit] What's the difference between occupational therapy and physical therapy?

I had both in school when I was a kid, and both seem (in my hazy recollection) to have involved me bouncing around on balls, rolling on balls, rolling on platform scooters (little platforms with four wheels on the bottom), and rolling on soft cylindars, etc. so I'm curious about the difference. 204.52.215.107 (talk) 01:00, 23 February 2008 (UTC)

For the record, my disabilities were and are: a) profound hearing loss, b) congenital heart murmur; both allegedly (according to my parents) came from congenital rubella syndrome, which occurred in 1979. While I have read from some source that there was an outbreak in CRS in the late 1970s and early 1980s, it occurred on the other side of the country (I was born in NYC, the outbreak was reported on the West Coast and in Chicago), but - interestingly enough - it turns out that there was a rubella outbreak in New York in 1985 and 1986, centered on a factory, a prison, and some New York hospitals. 204.52.215.107 (talk) 01:30, 23 February 2008 (UTC)

It's hard to describe but I believe that there are differences between an OT and PT in their scopes of practice, which at times in some settings could and would overlap (since OTs can work and are trained to work with clients with physical disabilities too). The OT scope is, essentially, occupation--or things people do (i.e. for fun/leisure, work/productivity, and self-care). So OTs have a wider scope as they can work in mental health settings too since clients in this setting would also have issues dealing with the things they do.

I'm not sure exactly what your therapist was doing or why, but it sounds like a sensory approach. (In my opinion. Look up Sensory Integration in Google...since they don't have a real article on that here. Perhaps they found you overly restless/sensory seeking or intolerant of many types of sensations?) Hope this is helpful. Jipy (talk) 03:23, 20 October 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Arghh! Too much disability focus!

Whilst having lots of contribution and discussion on how to make Wiki resources more comprehensive is great I am a bit disappointed to see so much medical model talk of "treatments" and such a focus on disability issues. Lets try and look forwards, not backwards!

--Ukot (talk) 21:00, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Where is the conflict of interest?

I cant see that it would be that the contributors, me included, are OTs? Can someone explain this to me, I'm new to all things Wiki!

--Ukot (talk) 22:26, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

Hi Guys, I think what we are doing could be seen as "advertising" becase it is all coming from a positive and descriptive perspective. I suppose we should think about including some of the more challenging aspects of OT too eg lack of clear definition, complex use of the word occupation, core v generic skills? What do you think?--OTUK (talk) 09:44, 4 November 2008 (UTC)

Yes thats an interesting take on the contributions we have, what could we call that section? Challenges in Occupational Therapy as you suggest (and can we put it at the bottom?!) --Ukot (talk) 10:59, 4 November 2008 (UTC)

Yes, good idea. Let's do it!--OTUK (talk) 19:48, 4 November 2008 (UTC)

[edit] We need a plan!

Being an Aussie trained OT, now working in Canada and teaching OT at a University here I think that one of the things we lack is a global plan for how we want wikipedia to represent us. Fortunately as it is a wiki, it is up to us, but unfortunately without leadership and vision we will continue to make a mash of this site. Thanks to the University of Salford someone is showing that vision and leadership :-). I would like to add my two pennies worth...

My thoughts are:

The opening page of occupational therapy needs to be broad and inclusive
We need to define occupational therapy up front (as that's what people look for in an encyclopedia) and have a brief history of the profession over time (let's use Ann Wilcock's books as a basis!), we need to describe approaches to practice either in the areas we practice and frames of reference/models. We may need to include reductionist "diagnostic" groupings to help the public understand why they might need an OT.
We need to talk about the WFOT with links to member nations (which we can put in place here and add to next)
Each member nation should have their own page and take charge of their own history
I think that the WFOT should be involved in this.

--VirtualOT (talk) 22:49, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

Here, here! I have put the WFOT definition at the top so thats a start. It will be interesting to see what we are left with after the Wikiflash OT event (the whole OT week I guess?) and then we can use that as a starting point. I like the idea of an initial page, and in being pragmatic about diagnosis specific examples. Key problems are that some of the defining (and wonderful!) things about OT are its openess to interpretation and inherent flexibility. Makes wikifying it a heck of a challenge though! --Ukot (talk) 23:12, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

[edit] I've done some re-organizing

As per my suggestion above I have re-organized the opening page and created a table with potential links to each member nation of WFOT. I have put the NZ and US history on their own pages and will start the Australian OT history when I can dig out my book. Maybe someone in the wikiflash would like to work on the UK history?

I did make some word changes (to try and broaden the appeal) but I have not gone too far. --VirtualOT (talk) 04:46, 4 November 2008 (UTC)

Love the new layout - far more organised and accessible. Having the various WFOT countries removes the US/NZ focus before and will(hopefully) encourage each country to contribute. --Ukot (talk) 09:31, 4 November 2008 (UTC)

I'm loving the new layout too. Looking very professional, well done.--OTUK (talk) 19:49, 4 November 2008 (UTC)

[edit] More work needed on new and exisiting pages

Beyond the OT page itself it would be great to see more on improing the definition of occupation, also pages on occupational deprivation,occupational performance and occupational satisfaction. Linking other condition specific pages to the OT page would also be helpful. Other related terms such as housing, sensory integration, rehabilitation etc etc there are loads out there that need to be linked in --Ukot (talk) 09:45, 4 November 2008 (UTC)

I think we can link to the Occupational Science Article and expand it. Occupational science concepts such as occ alienation, occ deprivation, occ burnout could be explained there and then linked to from the occ thy article. --VirtualOT (talk) 19:44, 4 November 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Merge page with occupational therapist?

I'm not clear what the advantage of having two separate pages is as the points will be relevant to both. In my opinion in makes sense to remove the occupational therapist page as most work has been done here.

--Ukot (talk) 10:45, 4 November 2008 (UTC)

I agree --VirtualOT (talk) 19:41, 4 November 2008 (UTC)
Merge. Not notable as a standalone. Bongo matic 04:56, 6 December 2008 (UTC)
Definitely Merge occupational therapist into occupational therapy. There are a small number of titles (e.g., physician, engineer, artist/artisan) for which it's appropriate to divide content in this way, but OT is not one of them. Also, "Occupational therapist" is a short article with a great deal of redundant content vis-à-vis "Occupational therapy". Ringbang (talk) 22:51, 24 April 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Edits by 139.222.230.241

139.222.230.241 appears to be spamming information promoting the writings of Venthan J. Mailoo, who he refers to as Venth sometimes, at other times V.J. Mailoo. [3] --Ronz (talk) 21:23, 21 November 2008 (UTC)

[edit] OT in Paediatrics

I see that there is a suggestion of merging the recently created article Occupational therapy in paediatrics with this main article. Based on the content of the new article I believe that it should be merged into this article. Beeswaxcandle (talk) 05:49, 6 December 2008 (UTC)

Concur, Merge 82.32.73.70 (talk) 00:49, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

[edit] WFOT section

The table of member nations is an ideal candidate for a template (there is already one at the bottom of the page for the Allied Health professions). Doing so will better enable this part of the project to establish which articles are missing and therefore need creating. Beeswaxcandle (talk) 05:57, 6 December 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Updating OT page

Hello everyone,

As a student from Washington University School of Medicine in St.Louis, MO in the USA, my program would like to contribute and help update this page. It has very valuable information as of now, and the hard work that has already been put into this page is obvious. Our student OT Association is taking on the project of adding information to the page, here are a few suggestions we have...we would love your input.

1. Expand more on the Areas of Practice in OT (integrate the Practice Framework) 2. Assistive Technology and Environmental Modifications 3. Importance of Evidence Based Practice 4. Theoretical Frameworks (expand on this section) 5. Background and History of OT in USA 6. Physical therapy vs. OT (and how we co-treat) 7. Skills, education, income, job outlook, etc. (USA, but thought other countries could add their information) 8. OT Assistants 9. Merge Occupational Therapist page into this page 10. ICF —Preceding unsigned comment added by AmandaJCannon (talk • contribs) 18:41, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

Hello Amanda! Thanks for choosing to contribute to the Wikipedia project. Before your group starts contributing you should familiarise yourselves with the manual of style which we use, in addition to other basic guidelines such as neutral point of view and our guidelines on verification and reliable sources. Also note to disclose any conflicts of interest that you might have with the project. Following these guidelines should make sure that all of your hard work remains on Wikipedia. I see you already know how talk pages work, but I'll go ahead and tell you how to create a signature. Hit the ~ key four times in the row after posting on talk pages to automatically sign your posts. Thanks again, Themfromspace (talk) 02:24, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

Thank you so much for getting back with us, and for your advice. We look forward to working with everyone. 128.252.16.235 (talk) 18:16, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Hi, just visiting the article again after a long absence. I notice that the list of "emerging areas of OT practice" include areas that have been in OT practice for decades, e.g assistive technology and another one was "rehabilitation". This dates back to the War era, so it is hardly emerging! I wonder if it is time to have another global workshop on this site? I wonder if this could now be a permanent feature of the WFOT conference? --VirtualOT (talk) 20:23, 22 August 2009 (UTC)

[edit] confusing first sentence should be rewritten

The first sentence of this article reads, "Occupational Therapy, often abbreviated as 'OT', incorporates meaningful and purposeful occupation to enable people with limitations or impairments to participate in everyday life."

That's a terrible sentence. It uses the word "occupation" to define the term "occupational therapy." Definitions should not be self-referential. I came to this page having no idea what OT therapy is, and after reading that first sentence I still had no idea what it is. In what sense is the word "occupation" being used? What does "meaningful and purposeful occupation" mean? If a reader is left confused by the first sentence, s/he might not stick around to read the whole article (I certainly didn't). A helpful encyclopedia article will be easily accessible from the outset with clearly defined terms; this way people who just want a quick answer can read the initial blurb, while those seeking more in-depth information can continue to read. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.255.31.246 (talk) 16:22, 3 May 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Occupational therapy history in India

I had inserted the following[4] as Indian historical perspective of Occupational Therapy but it was removed by user MrOllie. I think this is the only record about the Indian history and the blog is of the official Indian section.

Request that this be reinserted in the article.

Cleanningup (talk) 05:32, 9 November 2009 (UTC)

We don't link blogs. See WP:EL. - MrOllie (talk) 14:59, 17 November 2009 (UTC)

Thanks MrOllie. Being new to Wiki can you please help if this can be put on OT page. Somehow this seems to be the only written history from Indian OT. It appears that Kamala Nimbkar did pen her autobiography but that is not available on the blog page.

Thanks. Cleanningup (talk) 11:32, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Removing Mini-Biographies in History Section

The mini-biographies in the history section don't quite seem germane to the article itself. It seems as though it would be more appropriate to create individual articles for each of those people, and move to biographical content from this article to those. What are your thoughts? Mattymatt (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 22:07, 28 November 2009 (UTC).

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