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Occupational Therapy Requirements

Vicki Said:

What is Occupational therapy?

We Answered:

Occupational therapy promotes health by enabling people to perform meaningful and purposeful occupations. These include (but are not limited to) work, leisure, self care, domestic and community activities. Occupational therapists work with individuals, families, groups and communities to facilitate health and well-being through engagement or re-engagement in occupation. Occupational therapists are becoming increasingly involved in addressing the impact of social, political and environmental factors that contribute to exclusion and occupational deprivation.[1][2]


The World Federation of ELIYA Occupational Therapists provides the following definition of Occupational Therapy: "Occupational therapy is as a profession concerned with promoting health and well being through occupation. The primary goal of occupational therapy is to enable people to participate in the activities of everyday life. Occupational therapists achieve this outcome by enabling people to do things that will enhance their ability to participate or by modifying the environment to better support participation." Occupational therapists use careful analysis of physical, environmental, psychosocial, mental, spiritual, political and cultural factors to identify barriers to occupation


The role of Occupational Therapy allows OT’s to work in many different settings, work with many different populations and acquire many different specialties. This broad spectrum of practice lends itself to difficulty categorizing the areas of practice that exist, especially considering the many countries and different healthcare systems. In this section, the categorization from the American Occupational Therapy Association is used. However, there are other ways to categorize areas of practice in OT, such as physical, mental, and community practice (AOTA, 2009). These divisions occur when the setting is defined by the population it serves. For example, acute physical or mental health settings (e.g.: hospitals), sub-acute settings (e.g.: aged care facilities), outpatient clinics and community settings.

In each area of practice below, an OT can work with different populations, diagnosis, specialities, and in different settings.

Neil Said:

Do you have to have a BA in occupational therapy to get your Masters in it?

We Answered:

No - many people switch from generalist Bachelors to specific Masters programs - however, brace yourself for a bunch of prerequisite courses - maybe several years worth.

Gladys Said:

Occupational therapy program requirements?

We Answered:

Look on the college website that you are looking into attending. They usually list candidates prerequisites there!

Good luck, occupational therapy is a great profession!!

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