{
  "id": "occupational-therapy",
  "title": "Occupational Therapy",
  "lang": "en",
  "source_lang": "en",
  "summary": "A health profession that supports participation in meaningful everyday activities through individualized assessment, intervention, and environmental adaptation.",
  "category": "health",
  "subcategory": "medicine",
  "type": "concept",
  "aliases": [
    "OT",
    "ergotherapy"
  ],
  "generated_at": "2026-10-22",
  "model": "pro/gpt-6.1-sol",
  "url": "https://aiwiki.page/en/occupational-therapy/",
  "translations": {
    "zh-Hans": {
      "url": "https://aiwiki.page/zh/occupational-therapy/",
      "json": "https://aiwiki.page/zh/occupational-therapy.json"
    }
  },
  "sections": [
    {
      "heading": "",
      "text": "Occupational therapy is a health profession concerned with enabling people to participate in meaningful everyday activities, or occupations. In this context, occupation includes self-care, education, paid and unpaid work, play, leisure, rest, and social participation—not employment alone. Occupational therapists work with individuals, groups, and communities to support activities that people want, need, or are expected to perform. (wfot.org)\n\nThe profession connects health and quality of life with participation in daily life. Its approach considers the interaction between a person’s abilities, priorities, and routines; the demands of an activity; and the physical and social environment. Assessment and intervention may involve practising meaningful tasks, developing or maintaining skills, adapting activities, introducing assistive technology, or modifying environments. Occupational therapy contributes to rehabilitation while also operating in educational, community, and mental health settings. (aota.org)\n\nOccupational therapy encompasses a structured process of evaluation, intervention, and outcome review, supported by professional education and research. Its practice across the lifespan brings together questions of everyday functioning, participation, service accessibility, and the relationship between personal goals and available support. (aota.org)"
    },
    {
      "heading": "Occupation, Participation, and Professional Scope",
      "text": "In occupational therapy, an occupation is an everyday activity that has meaning or purpose in a person’s life, rather than simply a paid job. It includes activities undertaken individually, within a family, or with a community, whether chosen, necessary, or expected within a social role. The World Federation of Occupational Therapists’ 2025 definition identifies participation in meaningful occupations as the profession’s means of promoting health and wellbeing. Employment is therefore one area of practice, not its defining limit: occupational therapy is not synonymous with job placement or employment counselling. It also differs from occupational medicine, the medical specialty concerned with work-related illness, injury, and workplace health hazards. (wfot.org)\n\nThree related terms distinguish aspects of the occupational focus. Occupational performance concerns doing and accomplishing an activity through the interaction of the person, the task, and its context. Engagement includes involvement in an occupation and its meaning to the person, rather than observable task execution alone. Participation concerns involvement in life situations: being a student, parent, worker, friend, or community member. These distinctions explain why completing a component task does not necessarily establish participation in a valued role. For example, fastening buttons in a treatment session is not equivalent to managing a morning routine and arriving at school ready to join classmates. The distinction is between performing an action and using that performance within everyday life. (aota.org)\n\nThe American Occupational Therapy Association’s Occupational Therapy Practice Framework: Domain and Process, fourth edition, published in 2020, identifies nine occupational categories. Activities of daily living include basic personal care, such as bathing, dressing, eating, and toileting; instrumental activities of daily living concern more complex domestic and community tasks, such as shopping, meal preparation, and managing a household. The remaining categories are health management, rest and sleep, education, work, play, leisure, and social participation. Health management became a separate category in the fourth edition and includes medication routines, symptom management, communication with health services, and management of personal health devices. These categories distinguish purposes, not necessarily separate episodes: preparing a shared meal can involve household management, health management, and social participation simultaneously. (aota.org)\n\nThe profession’s unit of service is not restricted to an individual patient. The framework defines clients as persons, groups, or populations. A person may be the individual receiving treatment or a caregiver whose own activities require attention. A group comprises people with a shared purpose or occupational challenge, such as family members, workers, or students. A population shares broader contextual characteristics, health risks, or occupational barriers—for example, people experiencing housing insecurity. Accordingly, professional scope includes the environmental conditions, habits, routines, social roles, and personal capacities that support or constrain occupation, rather than bodily impairment alone. (aota.org)\n\nWithin multidisciplinary rehabilitation, occupational therapists collaborate with practitioners such as physical therapists, speech and language therapists, rehabilitation physicians, psychologists, and nurses. Their contribution is organized around everyday functioning and participation, not an exclusive claim over one diagnosis, age group, or body system. Physical, cognitive, sensory, emotional, and environmental difficulties can all affect the same occupation. The occupational focus therefore connects changes in health with their practical consequences for activities at home, in education, at work, and in community life. (who.int)"
    },
    {
      "heading": "Historical Development",
      "text": "The therapeutic use of activity preceded occupational therapy’s organization as a profession. Nineteenth-century psychiatric “moral treatment” incorporated work, recreation, and structured daily routines; the later Arts and Crafts movement also influenced the use of making and handicrafts in care. These precedents were not equivalent to a profession with its own association, educational standards, and qualifications. An early institutional example was the programme overseen by Eleanor Clarke Slagle at the Henry Phipps Psychiatric Clinic in Baltimore in 1913. Its “habit training” organized daily activity to resemble ordinary life, using regular routines rather than treating occupation simply as entertainment. (naricspotlight.com)\n\nIn the United States, the National Society for the Promotion of Occupational Therapy (NSPOT) held its founding meeting on March 15, 1917, at Consolation House in Clifton Springs, New York. The six participants were George Edward Barton, William Rush Dunton Jr., Slagle, Susan Cox Johnson, Thomas B. Kidner, and Isabel Newton. Barton hosted the meeting and became its first president; his correspondence with practitioners, including Dunton and Slagle, had helped bring together previously separate initiatives. Dunton contributed psychiatric experience and advocacy for therapeutic occupation, while Slagle combined clinical work with teaching and professional organization. The society became the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) in 1921 and adopted minimum training standards in 1923. (otcentennial.org)\n\nWorld War I connected this emerging organization with military rehabilitation. In 1918, four women were sent to France as neuropsychiatric civilian aides and five as reconstruction aides treating physical injuries. Their work addressed both psychological distress and recovery of function, extending occupation beyond its psychiatric institutional base. NSPOT also prepared an emergency training course for reconstruction aides, linking workforce preparation directly to military demand. During World War II, accelerated recruitment again became important: U.S. Army War Emergency Courses in occupational therapy began in 1944. A more permanent military position followed in 1947, when occupational therapists were included alongside physical therapists and dietitians in the newly established Women’s Medical Specialist Corps. (otcentennial.org)\n\nEducational and organizational development followed different national chronologies. In the United States, Milwaukee-Downer College offered a bachelor’s degree in occupational therapy in 1931, and educational “Essentials” appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 1935. In Britain, Elizabeth Casson founded Dorset House School in Bristol, which opened on January 1, 1930. Initially attached to a residential psychiatric facility, it combined teaching with supervised patient care; its associated services later included outpatient treatment for physical disabilities. The Scottish Association of Occupational Therapists formed in 1932, followed in 1936 by the association serving England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. These developments were not stages in a single American-led registration system. (otcentennial.org)\n\nInternational coordination acquired a formal structure in 1952 with the inauguration of the World Federation of Occupational Therapists (WFOT). Ten founding associations represented Australia, Canada, Denmark, India, Israel, New Zealand, South Africa, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Margaret B. Fulton of Scotland became its first president. WFOT’s initial objectives included exchanging professional information, supporting education, and advancing practice standards; its first minimum educational standards were also developed in 1952. Official relations with the World Health Organization began in 1959. (wfot.org)\n\nPostwar milestones established additional infrastructure for scholarship and broadened employment settings. The American Journal of Occupational Therapy began publication in 1947, and the American Occupational Therapy Foundation was established in 1965 as a scientific, educational, and charitable organization. In 1973, New York University received approval for a doctoral programme in occupational therapy. U.S. school-based practice gained a specific statutory footing when the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975 identified occupational therapy as a related service for students with disabilities. In Britain, the United Kingdom Occupational Therapy Research Foundation launched in 2007, providing a later national milestone in organized research support. (otcentennial.org)"
    },
    {
      "heading": "Conceptual Foundations and Practice Models",
      "text": "Occupational frameworks organize the relationships between a person, the demands of an activity, and the circumstances in which it occurs. The American Occupational Therapy Association’s Occupational Therapy Practice Framework: Domain and Process, fourth edition (2020), provides a shared vocabulary rather than a single explanation of occupational behaviour. It distinguishes occupations, contexts, performance patterns, performance skills, and client factors. These categories direct attention beyond an impairment: completing a meal-preparation task, for example, involves the person’s abilities, the sequence and timing of actions, available utensils, kitchen layout, and social expectations surrounding meals. This is an illustrative application of the framework, not a claim that any one factor determines performance. (aota.org)\n\nHabits, routines, and roles explain how activity becomes organized across time. In the framework, habits are relatively automatic behaviours, routines are recurring sequences that structure daily life, and roles concern identities such as parent, student, or volunteer. These patterns can support or hinder participation; a familiar morning routine may organize self-care, while work schedules may constrain opportunities for rest. Roles are also shaped by cultural norms and expectations rather than by physical capacity alone. Environmental influences include buildings and technology, but also relationships, other people’s attitudes, services, and policies. Personal background and environment therefore affect both how an activity is performed and whether an opportunity to participate exists. (aota.org)\n\nThe Model of Human Occupation (MOHO), first published in 1980 and developed by Gary Kielhofner and collaborators, offers an explanatory model of how occupations are motivated, patterned, and performed. Volition concerns motivation, including interests, values, and beliefs about personal capacity and effectiveness. Habituation concerns the organization of behaviour through habits and internalized roles. Performance capacity concerns the physical and mental abilities underlying occupational performance. These interrelated components operate within physical and social environments that provide opportunities, resources, expectations, and constraints. In clinical reasoning, MOHO helps distinguish questions about wanting to undertake an activity, incorporating it into everyday life, being able to perform it, and having an environment that permits it. These are interconnected lines of inquiry, not mutually exclusive explanations of difficulty. (moho-irm.uic.edu)\n\nClient-centred practice incorporates the person’s priorities, values, experience, and circumstances into professional reasoning and shared goals. AOTA’s evaluation guidance explicitly asks what the client wants and needs to do, alongside what the client can do and has previously done. The occupational profile supplies information about interests, daily patterns, values, and context; analysis of performance contributes information about assets and limitations. Client-centred reasoning brings these perspectives together rather than treating either professional observation or personal preference as sufficient by itself. For example, a wish to resume preparing family meals identifies a valued occupation, while analysis establishes which task demands and contextual barriers matter to that particular goal. (aota.org)\n\nConceptual models, assessment instruments, and intervention techniques serve different purposes. MOHO supplies concepts and proposed relationships; the Model of Human Occupation Screening Tool (MOHOST), version 2.0 (2006), is a specific assessment developed by Sue Parkinson, Kirsty Forsyth, and Kielhofner to organize information about occupational functioning. Its domains include motivation, occupational patterns, communication and interaction, process skills, motor skills, and environment. An intervention technique is an action undertaken to address an identified problem, rather than the model or instrument used to understand it. A coherent framework can organize questions and interpretation, but its coherence does not itself demonstrate treatment effectiveness; evidence about an intervention’s outcomes is a separate requirement of evidence-based practice. (moho-irm.uic.edu)"
    },
    {
      "heading": "Evaluation and Collaborative Goal Setting",
      "text": "Occupational therapy evaluation brings together an occupational profile and an analysis of occupational performance, the two components specified in the American Occupational Therapy Association’s 2020 practice framework. The profile establishes what the person wants, needs, or is expected to do, rather than beginning solely with a diagnosis or impairment. Through formal interviews and ordinary conversation, the therapist documents activity history, interests, values, daily routines, roles, and priorities. Questions concern successful activities as well as difficulties: which responsibilities have changed, what makes an activity meaningful, and which supports remain available. AOTA’s 2022 profile template explicitly considers environmental and personal contexts, including relationships, technology, services, cultural identification, and symptoms such as pain. These factors are recorded as potential supports or barriers to participation. (aota.org)\n\nPerformance analysis examines how the identified difficulties arise during activity. Interview findings are combined with observation of relevant tasks and selected assessments of performance skills, routines, environments, and bodily or cognitive functions. AOTA describes a “top-down” approach: identify an occupation that is important and challenging, then investigate the factors affecting it. Its 2023 acute-care checklist includes daily living activities, environmental safety, vision, functional cognition, sensation, and motor function. An illustrative dressing assessment might therefore distinguish difficulty handling fasteners from difficulty sequencing the task or locating clothing. The distinction matters because an impairment score alone does not describe the entire activity problem; the analysis connects specific findings to the occupation under examination. (aota.org)\n\nThe Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (COPM), first published in 1991, provides a structured way to identify priorities and record the client’s perspective. Developed by occupational therapists including Mary Law, Sue Baptiste, Anne Carswell, Mary Ann McColl, Helene Polatajko, and Nancy Pollock, it uses a semi-structured interview covering self-care, productivity, and leisure. The client rates the importance of identified activity problems on a ten-point scale and selects up to five priorities. Each selected problem receives separate performance and satisfaction ratings, also on ten-point scales; higher scores indicate better perceived performance or greater satisfaction. Separate mean performance and satisfaction scores are calculated. These are self-reported judgments, not scores assigned by observing task execution. The COPM consequently records a different kind of information from a direct performance assessment, even when both concern the same activity. (thecopm.ca)\n\nCollaborative goal setting links these priorities with the performance analysis. The client identifies valued outcomes, while the therapist contributes findings about activity demands, existing abilities, and contextual constraints. A hypothetical goal might specify preparing a familiar breakfast in the home kitchen within four weeks, with no physical assistance and no more than one verbal prompt. This formulation identifies the occupation, setting, assistance level, and review period rather than stating only an impairment target such as improved hand strength. Initial observations and client ratings establish a baseline. At reassessment, the COPM repeats performance and satisfaction ratings for the selected problems and calculates change scores; observational findings can separately document changes in task completion or assistance required. (aota.org)\n\nAssessment selection follows the occupational question and service context rather than a single universal battery. In acute hospital care, evaluation may emphasize everyday function, safety, caregiver availability, and discharge requirements; assessment in other settings addresses the occupations relevant to those settings. AOTA therefore provides separate evaluation checklists for acute care, home health, skilled nursing, outpatient services, and pediatrics. Evaluation also continues beyond the first appointment: subsequent interactions may reveal different priorities or barriers, requiring the profile, goals, and assessment focus to be revised. (aota.org)"
    },
    {
      "heading": "Intervention Methods and Environmental Adaptation",
      "text": "Occupation-based intervention uses meaningful everyday activities as both the means of intervention and the performance being developed. Practising dressing, preparing a meal, or organizing a shopping trip addresses the activity itself rather than only an underlying component such as strength. Task demands and context can be adjusted to the person’s goals and abilities: meal preparation might involve fewer steps, ingredients placed within reach, or a different balance of independent work and assistance. These illustrate how activity practice and adaptation can be combined rather than treated as competing approaches. The American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) distinguishes occupations and activities from supporting methods, education, advocacy, and group interventions. (aota.org)\n\nSupporting methods prepare for, or accompany, occupational performance. An orthosis supports or positions a body part; assistive technology changes how a person accesses or performs a task. An adapted jar opener, for example, is a means of enabling food preparation, not the occupation itself. AOTA’s classification includes orthotics and prosthetics, physical and mechanical modalities, environmental modifications, self-regulation techniques, and wheeled mobility. Such methods can be used during treatment or incorporated into everyday routines at home. Their occupational purpose remains explicit: providing a device or preparatory treatment is distinct from enabling its effective use in a valued activity. AOTA’s Practice Smart recommendation accordingly cautions against using physical agent modalities without purposeful, occupation-based activities. (aota.org)\n\nEnvironmental adaptation changes the conditions under which an activity occurs. Home modifications can include improved lighting, removal of obstacles, installation of grab bars, and wheelchair ramps. Recommendations relate these changes to the resident’s functional abilities, interests, and goals rather than applying an identical checklist of alterations to every household. Implementation may involve construction staff and community organizations, with occupational therapy follow-up addressing fit and equipment use. A concrete organizational example is AOTA’s partnership with the United States nonprofit Rebuilding Together, launched in 2001, which connects occupational therapy assessment with home repair and modification work. (aota.org) Wheeled mobility likewise involves more than supplying a wheelchair: the World Health Organization’s 2023 guidelines specify individualized assessment and selection, preparation and fitting, user information and training, and follow-up to establish whether the chair continues to meet the person’s needs. (who.int)\n\nEducation supplies knowledge about an activity or strategy, while training develops the skills needed to perform it. Both can involve clients and care partners; wheelchair provision, for example, includes learning safe and efficient use and care of the product. Group interventions provide opportunities to develop social interaction and participation skills. Advocacy addresses access to resources needed for participation, extending intervention beyond practising an activity within a treatment session. (aota.org)\n\nIntervention proceeds through three linked phases: planning, implementation, and review. Plans combine evaluation findings with the client’s priorities, circumstances, available evidence, and setting requirements. During implementation, practitioners collaborate with clients and care partners rather than treating the written plan as fixed. Review examines progress toward the intended outcomes, whether the chosen methods remain appropriate, and what requires modification. It also determines whether occupational therapy should continue or referral to another service is needed. (aota.org)"
    },
    {
      "heading": "Children, Youth, and Educational Participation",
      "text": "In early childhood, occupational therapy addresses participation in play, self-care, learning, and family routines rather than developmental skills in isolation. Activities such as dressing, using utensils, exploring toys, and preparing for sleep provide both intervention contexts and functional outcomes. Gloria Frolek Clark and Karrie L. Kingsley’s 2020 Occupational Therapy Practice Guidelines for Early Childhood: Birth–5 Years organize evidence for this age range. Family-centred early intervention incorporates caregivers’ priorities and the circumstances in which activities occur; caregiver coaching extends opportunities for learning beyond direct therapist–child sessions by embedding practice in everyday routines. (cysis.aota.org)\n\nSchool-based practice concerns access to education across academic, nonacademic, technological, vocational, and extracurricular activities. Handwriting is one component, alongside managing classroom materials, completing assignments, personal care, meals, recess, movement between activities, and participation in clubs or sports. The distinction matters because a difficulty observed during a written assignment may require analysis of the task and classroom context, not simply exercises for hand strength or coordination. For handwriting itself, AOTA’s evidence-informed resources identify support for therapeutic handwriting practice, rather than assuming that isolated visual-perceptual or manipulation exercises will transfer to written work. Collaboration with teachers connects intervention to the assignments and routines through which students demonstrate learning. (aota.org)\n\nServices for autistic children are organized around individual strengths, interests, support needs, and meaningful occupational goals. The 2024 Occupational Therapy Practice Guidelines for Autistic People Across the Lifespan frame intervention around access, inclusion, engagement, and participation. AOTA’s Practice Smart recommendations also caution against attempting to eliminate repetitive actions or interests without understanding their meaning and the relevant personal and environmental circumstances. Accordingly, assessment of a child’s difficulty participating in a noisy lunchroom considers the sensory and social demands of that setting, rather than treating the diagnosis as a sufficient explanation or prescription. The same participation-focused reasoning applies to other children whose physical, developmental, or social-emotional difficulties affect school routines. (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)\n\nIntervention may involve an individual student, a targeted small group, or the wider school environment. In the multi-tiered approach described by AOTA, Tier 1 provides universal supports, Tier 2 addresses groups with similar participation needs, and Tier 3 provides intensive individual support; implementation depends on local regulations. Concrete school-wide examples include Comfortable Cafeteria and Refreshing Recess: six-week programs delivered one day per week, combining staff education, short activities, and coaching. Their activities address inclusion, conversation, friendship, and active play. Occupational therapists may work with teachers, cafeteria and playground supervisors, speech-language pathologists, counsellors, and physical therapists to adapt activities and environments. (aota.org)\n\nCaregiver and professional collaboration also determines how strategies are used between sessions. Early-childhood interprofessional competencies developed with AOTA emphasize coordination, family-centred practice, and evidence-based intervention. In schools, integrated delivery places occupational therapy within ordinary settings—including classrooms, playgrounds, and cafeterias—and aligns it with shared educational goals. This differs from treating every difficulty through an individual session outside class: direct intervention, consultation, and classroom collaboration are distinct ways of supporting participation. Caregivers contribute knowledge of the child’s home routines and priorities, while educators identify the demands and opportunities of the school day. (aota.org)"
    },
    {
      "heading": "Adult Physical Rehabilitation",
      "text": "After stroke, difficulties with everyday activities can reflect interacting changes in movement, sensation, attention, perception, and action planning. Dressing, for example, requires more than sufficient arm strength: a person must locate clothing, recognize its orientation, sequence movements, and attend to both sides of the body. Spatial inattention can lead to overlooking one sleeve, while apraxia can disrupt the organization of otherwise physically possible movements. Occupational therapy therefore examines performance of the activity rather than inferring independence from isolated measurements of strength or joint movement. NICE’s 2023 guideline on adult stroke rehabilitation describes both restorative approaches, such as encouraging use of the affected arm and attention to the neglected side, and compensatory approaches, such as one-handed dressing and bathing aids. (nice.org.uk)\n\nStroke rehabilitation connects practice of specific tasks with the circumstances in which they are needed. The 2023 National Clinical Guideline for Stroke for the United Kingdom and Ireland describes assessment and treatment of personal activities such as washing, eating, toileting, and dressing, alongside more complex domestic activities. Repeated practice may address the whole activity or particular components, with equipment or assistance incorporated where necessary. For example, preparing food brings together standing or seated balance, reaching, object manipulation, sequencing, and awareness of hazards. The relevant outcome is not simply better movement during an exercise, but whether the person can carry out the intended activity with an appropriate level of safety and support. (strokeguideline.org)\n\nMusculoskeletal practice similarly relates upper-limb capacity to practical demands. Hand rehabilitation includes care following fractures and tendon repairs, as well as management of arthritis, stiffness, and nerve-compression conditions. Restricted wrist movement or painful gripping may interfere with handling utensils, fastening clothes, or using tools. Treatment can combine exercises, orthoses, symptom-management methods, adapted equipment, and practice of everyday tasks; the selection depends on the condition and its functional consequences. The American Occupational Therapy Association distinguishes these supporting methods from the occupations they enable: fitting an orthosis is not itself equivalent to restoring participation in cooking or work. NICE’s rheumatoid arthritis guideline specifically identifies difficulty with everyday activities or hand function as reasons for access to specialist occupational therapy with periodic review. (assh.my.site.com)\n\nParticipation goals extend beyond basic self-care to domestic responsibilities, employment, education, volunteering, leisure, and community life. The 2023 stroke practice guidelines by Mary W. Hildebrand, Daniel Geller, and Rachel Proffitt address occupational performance and participation across this broader range of activities. Returning to employment illustrates the need to examine both personal capacities and environmental demands: fatigue, difficulty multitasking, communication changes, or reduced typing ability may remain consequential even after basic dressing and mobility improve. NICE describes job-demand analysis, work simulations, memory strategies, voice-activated software, employer liaison, and phased return as possible components of return-to-work management. These interventions address the relationship between a particular job and the person’s functioning rather than treating employment readiness as a single physical threshold. (journals.sagepub.com)\n\nOccupational therapists collaborate with physical therapists, nurses, physicians, speech and language therapists, psychologists, and other rehabilitation professionals according to the person’s needs. Their expertise overlaps: hand therapy, for example, can be provided by appropriately trained occupational or physical therapists. The distinction is therefore not reliably expressed as “fine motor” versus “gross motor” treatment. In stroke services, both professions contribute to functional recovery, while occupational therapy has a particular responsibility for analyzing and addressing everyday activity performance. Explicitly documented team roles help coordinate this overlapping work across the rehabilitation pathway. (who.int)"
    },
    {
      "heading": "Mental Health and Psychosocial Practice",
      "text": "Mental health conditions can disrupt the organization of everyday life as well as the performance of particular tasks. Anxiety, reduced motivation, difficulties with attention, and disturbed sleep may interfere with washing, preparing meals, attending classes, maintaining employment, or meeting friends. Occupational assessment therefore examines what a person actually does, the structure of the day, and the environmental supports or barriers affecting participation—not simply whether the person possesses the physical ability to complete an activity. The American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) identifies self-care, domestic activities, rest and sleep, leisure, social participation, employment, and education as relevant intervention domains for adults living with serious mental illness. (aota.org)\n\nIndividual interventions connect the person’s priorities with practical changes in daily activity. Work may include establishing a manageable morning routine, organizing appointments and health-management tasks, developing budgeting skills, or rebuilding participation in valued leisure and community activities. The therapeutic mechanism is not activity alone: practitioners examine the task, the assistance required, and the routines within which it occurs, then develop strategies that support participation. In community mental health services, assessment of functional performance also helps identify the level of support needed for community living. Goals are based on the person’s preferences, interests, and strengths rather than on diagnosis alone. (aota.org)\n\nGroup approaches combine opportunities for social participation with structured exploration and practice of everyday activities. A concrete example is Balancing Everyday Life (BEL), developed by Elisabeth Argentzell and Mona Eklund for users of psychiatric services in Sweden. Its 16-week format comprises 12 weekly sessions and two booster sessions, with five to eight participants per group. Topics include motivation, activity balance, healthy living, work-related activities, leisure, relaxation, and social activity. In a 2017 cluster-randomized controlled trial led by Eklund, 133 participants received BEL and 93 received usual care, principally standard occupational therapy. Activity engagement and activity level improved more in the BEL group, with differences remaining at six-month follow-up; satisfaction with daily activities and self-rated health did not show greater improvement. The programme illustrates a structured occupation-focused approach, rather than evidence that any group activity produces equivalent effects. (link.springer.com)\n\nMental health promotion and prevention differ from individualized intervention for established illness in their target population and purpose. Promotion can address whole communities or institutions through opportunities for meaningful activity, supportive social relationships, and sustainable daily routines. Targeted prevention addresses groups at increased risk, while intensive services respond to substantial existing participation difficulties. AOTA’s school mental health toolkit expresses this distinction through three tiers: universal promotion, targeted prevention, and intensive intervention. For people living with serious mental illness, occupation-focused rehabilitation may instead involve sustained support for everyday living, education, employment, and community participation. These approaches share attention to daily life, but neither participation in a wellness programme nor receiving occupational therapy necessarily implies a psychiatric diagnosis. (aota.org)\n\nWithin mental health teams, occupational therapy contributes detailed knowledge of functional performance and the relationship between people, activities, and their environments. Findings about self-care, routines, and community-living support needs complement the work of other professionals and inform coordinated care. Occupational therapy is therefore not interchangeable with psychotherapy or psychiatric treatment: an occupation-focused intervention may address how someone organizes and carries out daily life, while psychological or medical interventions address other treatment needs. The boundary does not prohibit overlap; some occupational therapists undertake additional psychotherapeutic training. Their use of such approaches does not remove the need to distinguish occupation-focused goals from psychotherapy-specific competencies. (aota.org)"
    },
    {
      "heading": "Older Adults, Cognitive Change, and Care Partnerships",
      "text": "Occupational therapy with older adults addresses the organization of everyday life as abilities, routines, and opportunities change. Its focus includes maintaining familiar roles and valued activities, rather than self-care alone. Community mobility is particularly important because access to shopping, social relationships, and community activities may depend on transportation. Occupational therapists can address the demands of driving and support transitions to other forms of transport when circumstances change. Work on ageing in place similarly connects the home environment with participation: modifications are considered in relation to what a person needs and wants to do in familiar surroundings, not simply whether the dwelling meets a generic safety checklist. (aota.org)\n\nFor people living with dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease, intervention examines the relationship between remaining abilities and the cognitive demands of particular activities. Bathing, dressing, cooking, and medication management can become difficult as thinking and the ability to understand information change. Assessment therefore considers performance in everyday tasks alongside the person’s established habits and interests. Adaptations may involve compensatory aids, changes to the activity or environment, and routines that support continued engagement. The purpose is to enable participation despite cognitive impairment; improved completion of an adapted task does not itself demonstrate reversal of the underlying disease. Enjoyable activities and physical and social participation remain relevant goals alongside practical assistance with daily living. (aota.org)\n\nCare partnerships make these adaptations part of daily life. Family members and other care partners may receive education about dementia, supervision, and ways of supporting activity, while also addressing their own mental health and wellbeing. A concrete example is the community occupational therapy programme studied by Maud Graff and colleagues in the Netherlands in 2006. Their randomized controlled trial involved 135 community-dwelling people aged 65 or older with mild-to-moderate dementia and their primary caregivers. Ten sessions over five weeks combined training in compensatory aids with caregiver training in coping and supervision. The study reported improvements in patients’ daily functioning and caregivers’ sense of competence, maintained at the three-month assessment; these findings concerned the defined programme and study population. (aota.org)\n\nHome assessment addresses environmental accessibility as well as hazards. Relevant features include lighting, slippery surfaces, stair rails, and the interaction of these features with an individual’s routines and activities. The same environment can impose different demands on people with different abilities: poor lighting, for example, has particular implications for someone with low vision. Occupational therapy may combine environmental changes with task modification and training, rather than treating removal of physical obstacles as sufficient. The assessment concerns opportunities to carry out valued activities as well as exposure to injury; enabling participation at home and preventing falls are related but distinct outcomes. (aota.org)\n\nEnvironmental assessment is not a guarantee that falls or other adverse events will be prevented. A 2023 Cochrane review found that home fall-hazard reduction interventions reduced the rate of falls by approximately 38% among community-dwelling older adults selected for higher fall risk, based on nine studies involving 1,513 participants. Higher-risk groups included people with previous falls, recent hospitalization, or a need for assistance with daily activities. The review found no reduction in fall rate among populations not selected for increased risk. These results concern implemented hazard-reduction programmes, not assessment alone, and the reduction in fall rate should not be interpreted as an equivalent reduction in the proportion of people who fall or in fall-related injuries. (cochrane.org)"
    },
    {
      "heading": "Service Delivery, Technology, and Access",
      "text": "Occupational therapy is delivered across health, educational, domestic, and community settings, with different opportunities for observing and supporting everyday activity. Hospitals provide access to medical monitoring and multidisciplinary assessment, while specialist rehabilitation centres offer coordinated rehabilitation resources. Outpatient clinics support repeated appointments but require attendance or remote access. Schools make educational routines the immediate context of intervention; homes allow assessment using the person’s own furniture, equipment, and household arrangements. Community services address participation beyond institutional care. These differences affect which activities can be observed directly, which resources are available, and how intervention fits into daily life. The World Health Organization (WHO) identifies hospitals, rehabilitation centres, clinics, schools, and homes as complementary locations for rehabilitation, rather than prescribing a single service setting. (who.int)\n\nVirtual intervention changes how services are delivered, not necessarily their therapeutic purpose. The American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA), drawing on its 2020 practice framework, includes videoconferencing and simulation among technologies used to address performance skills and occupational engagement. Through telerehabilitation, a practitioner can observe activity in the home and involve a care partner without requiring everyone to travel to a clinic. Simulation instead provides a constructed activity environment; it need not involve remote communication. In either case, the underlying intervention may remain activity practice, environmental adaptation, or education and training. The presence of a screen or simulated task does not itself establish a distinct therapeutic approach or demonstrate effectiveness for every client or goal. (aota.org)\n\nRemote delivery can reduce geographical and travel barriers while introducing other access requirements. AOTA’s telehealth decision guide identifies equipment, cameras, software, internet bandwidth, technical support, and the individual’s ability to benefit as implementation considerations. Its clinical decision process retains client-centred assessment and risk–benefit analysis rather than treating remote delivery as an automatic substitute for attendance. AOTA’s school-based resources likewise identify the digital divide and caregiver involvement as practical concerns. Thus, access depends not only on whether a service offers video appointments, but also on whether the person can connect, participate, and receive appropriate support. Data privacy and consent remain relevant when sessions transmit information from homes or educational environments. (aota.org)\n\nCoordination across settings links individual treatment episodes to continuing rehabilitation needs. WHO describes rehabilitation planning as a process of assessing functioning, agreeing goals, selecting intervention type, intensity, and duration, and evaluating progress. Depending on those needs, occupational therapists collaborate with practitioners in physical therapy, nursing, medicine, speech and language therapy, psychology, and other disciplines. AOTA’s intervention-review process includes reassessment, modification of the plan, and decisions about continued services or referral. Applied across a hospital-to-home transition, these processes mean that discharge from one setting need not imply completion of rehabilitation: subsequent services can address activities and environmental demands that were not directly observable during admission. (who.int)\n\nInternational access also depends on workforce distribution and educational capacity. The World Federation of Occupational Therapists’ Human Resources Project 2024, using data collected in 2023 from 102 member organisations representing countries and territories, reported 680,162 practising occupational therapists and 1,036 WFOT-approved education programmes. These are respondent-reported totals, not a complete census of every country; missing information cannot be interpreted as zero provision. WFOT’s workforce strategy identifies scarce or absent services and underdeveloped local education in many low- and middle-income contexts, alongside educational-capacity shortfalls and international recruitment in some high-income countries. Within countries, urban–rural distribution and concentration in particular service sectors further affect availability. Its proposed expansion mechanism therefore combines education with funded employment, deployment, and retention: increasing graduate numbers alone does not ensure that underserved populations receive services. (hr-project.wfot.org)"
    },
    {
      "heading": "Education, Regulation, and Professional Ethics",
      "text": "Occupational therapy education combines occupation-focused theory, practical skills, and supervised fieldwork. The World Federation of Occupational Therapists (WFOT) sets international educational standards, while expecting curricula to respond to local population needs and practice contexts. Its Minimum Standards for the Education of Occupational Therapists provide criteria for programme development and review rather than a worldwide licence to practise. In February 2026, WFOT approved revised standards replacing the 2016 edition, alongside a separate Minimum Competencies of Occupational Therapists document. Programmes undergoing review in 2027 may use either framework; reviews from January 2028 are expected to use the 2026 documents. The revised framework retains 1,000 hours of fieldwork, requires experiences involving both mental and physical health needs, and excludes wholly online entry-level education. Its suggested ceiling of 20–30% of fieldwork through simulation or online practice is a recommendation, not a mandatory requirement. (wfot.org)\n\nEducational recognition, professional certification, and legal authorization are distinct processes. In the United States, entry-level occupational therapist education is offered at master’s or doctoral level; the domestic route involves an accredited programme, the National Board for Certification in Occupational Therapy (NBCOT) examination, and the relevant jurisdiction’s licensing process. NBCOT certification is not itself a state licence. Internationally educated applicants undergo an educational comparability assessment through NBCOT’s Occupational Therapist Eligibility Determination process before becoming eligible for its examination. In the United Kingdom, by contrast, “occupational therapist” is a legally protected title requiring registration with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC). These systems illustrate why recognition of an educational programme does not automatically establish eligibility to work in another country. (nbcot.org)\n\nContinuing competence extends beyond obtaining an initial qualification. HCPC proficiency standards effective from 1 September 2023 require occupational therapists to keep knowledge and skills current, recognize their limits, and seek advice or refer when necessary. Its continuing professional development requirements include maintaining an accurate learning record, undertaking varied activities relevant to present or future practice, and showing how learning contributes to service quality and benefits service users. Registrants selected for audit must provide a supported account of their development. Reading journals alone does not satisfy the requirement for a mixture of learning activities. Continuing competence is therefore assessed through documented professional learning, not simply possession of an unchanged academic credential. (hcpc-uk.org)\n\nProfessional ethics also governs everyday clinical decisions. HCPC standards require valid informed consent, confidentiality, appropriate records, risk management, and collaboration with service users and other professionals. Safe selection of rehabilitation interventions requires attention to the individual’s needs, the practitioner’s competence, and the risks associated with an assessment, activity, or piece of equipment. Delegation likewise requires an appropriate match between the task and the recipient’s knowledge and skills, with continuing supervision and support. Professional accountability consequently concerns both what intervention is chosen and how its rationale, delivery, and review are documented. (hcpc-uk.org)\n\nWFOT places these responsibilities within a broader relationship between occupational participation and human rights. Its 2019 position statement, revising the 2006 statement, connects opportunities for meaningful occupation with justice and social inclusion. Occupational justice is the professional concept concerned with equitable opportunities and resources to participate in occupations, including freedom of occupational choice without coercion. This extends ethical attention beyond individual impairment to social arrangements that restrict participation. It is a normative framework for practice, advocacy, and policy, rather than a standardized clinical outcome or evidence that a particular intervention is effective; claims about treatment benefit require separate empirical evaluation. (content.libsyn.com)"
    },
    {
      "heading": "Research, Outcomes, and Evidence-Based Practice",
      "text": "Occupational therapy’s approach to evidence-based practice combines research findings, professional experience and reasoning, and the preferences of clients and their families. Research informs the choice of interventions, but its application requires consideration of the person’s goals, abilities, routines, and environment. The American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) describes intervention planning as a collaborative process based on desired outcomes, assessment findings, and the best available evidence, followed by review and modification as progress is assessed. Evidence therefore informs an individualized plan rather than prescribing an identical programme for everyone with the same diagnosis. (journals.sagepub.com)\n\nOutcome measurement distinguishes what a person can do, how they judge their performance, their participation in everyday situations, and broader wellbeing or quality of life. These outcomes are not interchangeable: evidence of improved task performance does not, by itself, establish improved social participation. The Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (COPM) specifically measures client-perceived performance and satisfaction, producing separate scores out of 10 for up to five prioritized occupational problems. Reassessment measures change in each dimension rather than combining them into a single judgment of success. Its developers also caution that the amount of change considered clinically important can vary with the population, the occupational problems selected, and the service context; detecting change and establishing that it matters to the person are related but distinct measurement questions. (thecopm.ca)\n\nSystematic reviews and practice guidelines evaluate defined intervention–population–outcome combinations, rather than assigning one effectiveness rating to the profession. AOTA develops topic-specific guidelines by extracting, appraising, and synthesizing research addressing explicit questions. For example, the 2023 Occupational Therapy Practice Guidelines for Adults With Stroke, by Mary W. Hildebrand, Daniel Geller, and Rachel Proffitt, drew on 168 studies addressing daily activities, occupational participation, and caregiving. The guideline reported strong supporting evidence for task-oriented training and several other approaches for activities of daily living and functional mobility. Such findings concern specified outcomes after stroke; they do not establish that every intervention within occupational therapy is equally effective, or that gains extend to every aspect of life. (aota.org)\n\nThe evidence supporting those guidelines also illustrates uneven research coverage. A 2022 review by Rachel Proffitt and colleagues examined interventions addressing social participation, work, and leisure after stroke, searching studies published from January 2009 through December 2019. It included 47 articles, with only three addressing work and three addressing leisure; some articles contributed to more than one category. The authors judged the evidence for these outcomes predominantly low in strength and identified a need for additional research. This gap makes intervention selection for return to work or leisure a different evidential question from selecting an intervention to improve basic daily activities, even within the same diagnostic population. (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)\n\nTransfer between settings requires examination of who participated in a study, which outcomes were measured, and whether those circumstances resemble the intended service. AOTA’s systematic-review methods explicitly include comparison of study populations and outcome measures when interpreting applicability. Evidence strength depends on consistency and study quality, not simply the number of publications: small samples, methodological limitations, or conflicting results can reduce confidence. Alongside the documented gaps in poststroke work and leisure research, these considerations frame questions about which intervention components produce benefit, which measures capture meaningful change, and whether findings apply beyond the populations and environments studied. (aota.org)"
    }
  ],
  "links": [
    "health",
    "quality-of-life",
    "rehabilitation",
    "mental-health",
    "family",
    "education",
    "physical-therapy",
    "world-war-i",
    "world-war-ii",
    "world-health-organization",
    "culture",
    "evidence-based-medicine",
    "pain",
    "autism-spectrum-disorder",
    "stroke",
    "mental-disorder",
    "randomized-controlled-trial",
    "health-promotion",
    "dementia",
    "alzheimers-disease",
    "data-privacy",
    "ethics",
    "informed-consent",
    "human-rights"
  ],
  "sources": [
    {
      "title": "Why OEM? | ACOEM",
      "url": "https://acoem.org/Why-OEM"
    },
    {
      "title": "Domain and Process | AOTA",
      "url": "https://www.aota.org/practice/domain-and-process"
    },
    {
      "title": "Fieldwork Performance Evaluation for the Occupational Therapy Student",
      "url": "https://www.aota.org/-/media/Corporate/Files/EducationCareers/Fieldwork/Fieldwork-Performance-Evaluation-Occupational-Therapy-Student.pdf"
    },
    {
      "title": "Occupations and everyday activities | AOTA",
      "url": "https://www.aota.org/practice/domain-and-process/occupations-everyday-activities"
    },
    {
      "title": "Rehabilitation | World Health Organization",
      "url": "https://www.who.int/news-room/questions-and-answers/item/rehabilitation"
    },
    {
      "title": "Occupational Therapy: A Brief History",
      "url": "https://naricspotlight.com/2018/11/09/occupational-therapy-a-brief-history/"
    },
    {
      "title": "New Approaches to Patient Work and Occupation",
      "url": "https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK588719/?report=classic"
    },
    {
      "title": "1917: Important Events in OT's History",
      "url": "https://www.otcentennial.org/100-events/1917"
    },
    {
      "title": "Timeline",
      "url": "https://www.otcentennial.org/timeline"
    },
    {
      "title": "Important Events in Occupational Therapy in 1910s",
      "url": "https://www.otcentennial.org/events/1910"
    },
    {
      "title": "Important Events in Occupational Therapy in 1940s",
      "url": "https://www.otcentennial.org/events/1940"
    },
    {
      "title": "Important Events in Occupational Therapy in 1930s",
      "url": "https://www.otcentennial.org/events/1930"
    },
    {
      "title": "Dorset House Archive",
      "url": "https://www.brookes.ac.uk/library/collections/special-collections/public-and-allied-health/dorset-house-archive"
    },
    {
      "title": "The history of the Royal College of Occupational Therapists",
      "url": "https://www.rcot.co.uk/learn-about-occupational-therapy/about-rcot/our-history"
    },
    {
      "title": "Framework | AOTA",
      "url": "https://www.aota.org/practice/domain-and-process/framework/"
    },
    {
      "title": "Domain and Process - Skills and Routines | AOTA",
      "url": "https://www.aota.org/practice/domain-and-process/skills-and-routines"
    },
    {
      "title": "Domain and Process: Context | AOTA",
      "url": "https://www.aota.org/practice/domain-and-process/contexts"
    },
    {
      "title": "Introduction to MOHO",
      "url": "https://moho-irm.uic.edu/resources/about.aspx"
    },
    {
      "title": "Employment Options Program Manual",
      "url": "https://moho-irm.uic.edu/resources/files/EO%20Manual.pdf"
    },
    {
      "title": "Evaluation & Assessment | AOTA",
      "url": "https://www.aota.org/practice/domain-and-process/evaluation-and-assessment"
    },
    {
      "title": "MOHOST",
      "url": "https://moho-irm.uic.edu/productDetails.aspx?aid=4"
    },
    {
      "title": "Practice Smart | AOTA",
      "url": "https://www.aota.org/practice/practice-essentials/evidencebased-practiceknowledge-translation/practice-smart"
    },
    {
      "title": "COPM | Canadian Occupational Performance Measure",
      "url": "https://www.thecopm.ca/"
    },
    {
      "title": "About The COPM | COPM",
      "url": "https://www.thecopm.ca/about/"
    },
    {
      "title": "Learn to Use the COPM | COPM",
      "url": "https://www.thecopm.ca/learn/"
    },
    {
      "title": "AOTA's Occupational Profile Template for Documentation | AOTA",
      "url": "https://www.aota.org/practice/practice-essentials/documentation/improve-your-documentation-with-aotas-updated-occupational-profile-template"
    },
    {
      "title": "OT Acute Care Evaluation Checklist & Quality Measures",
      "url": "https://www.aota.org/-/media/corporate/files/practice/practice-essentials/quality/acute-care-eval-checklist-2023.pdf"
    },
    {
      "title": "AOTA Occupational Profile Template",
      "url": "https://www.aota.org/-/media/corporate/files/practice/manage/documentation/aota-occupational-profile-template.pdf"
    },
    {
      "title": "Intervention | AOTA",
      "url": "https://www.aota.org/practice/domain-and-process/intervention-new"
    },
    {
      "title": "Interventions to Support Occupations | AOTA",
      "url": "https://www.aota.org/practice/practice-essentials/interventions-to-support-occupations"
    },
    {
      "title": "Home Modifications and Key Community-based Partnerships | AOTA",
      "url": "https://www.aota.org/practice/practice-settings/home-modifications-key-community-partnerships/"
    },
    {
      "title": "Wheelchair provision guidelines",
      "url": "https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240074521/"
    },
    {
      "title": "Recommendations and implementation guidance - Wheelchair provision guidelines",
      "url": "https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK600091/?report=printable"
    },
    {
      "title": "Practice Resources – Children & Youth SIS",
      "url": "https://cysis.aota.org/practice-resources/"
    },
    {
      "title": "Early Intervention",
      "url": "https://www.aota.org/practice/practice-settings/schools-early-intervention-community-education/early-intervention"
    },
    {
      "title": "Interventions to support infants and toddlers",
      "url": "https://www.aota.org/publications/ot-practice/ot-practice-issues/2023/research-update-interventions-to-support-infants-toddlers"
    },
    {
      "title": "Collaborating with general education teachers",
      "url": "https://www.aota.org/publications/ot-practice/ot-practice-issues/2022/collaborating-with-general-ed-teachers"
    },
    {
      "title": "Guidance for Performance Evaluation of School Occupational Therapists",
      "url": "https://www.aota.org/practice/practice-settings/path-to-leadership-for-school-based-practitioners/-/media/03ea6fd452d444eb89f4c67849baf979.ashx"
    },
    {
      "title": "Evidence-informed intervention ideas: Handwriting for children and youth 5–21",
      "url": "https://www.aota.org/practice/practice-essentials/evidencebased-practiceknowledge-translation/evidence-informed-intervention-ideas-handwriting-children-youth-5-21"
    },
    {
      "title": "School Mental Health Toolkit",
      "url": "https://www.aota.org/practice/clinical-topics/school-mental-health-toolkit/"
    },
    {
      "title": "SIS Practice Connections – Children & Youth SIS",
      "url": "https://cysis.aota.org/sis-practice-connections/"
    },
    {
      "title": "Recommendations | Stroke rehabilitation in adults | Guidance | NICE",
      "url": "https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng236/chapter/Recommendations"
    },
    {
      "title": "Hand Therapy: What Is Right for Me? | The Hand Society",
      "url": "https://assh.my.site.com/handcare/condition/hand-therapy"
    },
    {
      "title": "Recommendations | Rheumatoid arthritis in adults: management | Guidance | NICE",
      "url": "https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng100/chapter/Recommendations"
    },
    {
      "title": "Mental health and well-being | AOTA",
      "url": "https://www.aota.org/practice/clinical-topics/mental-health"
    },
    {
      "title": "Mental & Behavioral Health in Non-Psychiatric Settings | AOTA",
      "url": "https://www.aota.org/practice/clinical-topics/ot-mh-non-psychiatric-settings"
    },
    {
      "title": "Occupational Therapy Outcome Measures for Community Mental Health Services",
      "url": "https://www.aota.org/-/media/Corporate/Files/Practice/MentalHealth/occupational-therapy-outcome-measures-community-mental-health-services.pdf"
    },
    {
      "title": "Effectiveness of Balancing Everyday Life (BEL) versus standard occupational therapy for activity engagement and functioning among people with mental illness – a cluster RCT study",
      "url": "https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12888-017-1524-7"
    },
    {
      "title": "Psychotherapeutic occupational therapy: why the right time is now for occupational therapists within psychotherapy",
      "url": "https://www.rcot.co.uk/latest-news/psychotherapeutic-occupational-therapy-blog"
    },
    {
      "title": "Finding innovative approaches to support productive aging",
      "url": "https://www.aota.org/practice/clinical-topics/driving-community-mobility/productive-aging"
    },
    {
      "title": "Ask for OT Services for Alzheimer's Disease",
      "url": "https://www.aota.org/-/media/corporate/files/practice/ask-for-ot/askforotservicesforalzheimersdisease.pdf"
    },
    {
      "title": "Reducing fall hazards within the environment",
      "url": "https://www.cochrane.org/evidence/CD013258_reducing-fall-hazards-within-environment"
    },
    {
      "title": "Expanding Occupational Therapy Telehealth Services",
      "url": "https://www.aota.org/advocacy/issues/telehealth-advocacy"
    },
    {
      "title": "Occupational Therapy Telehealth Decision Guide",
      "url": "https://www.aota.org/-/media/corporate/files/practice/occupationaltherapytelehealthdecisionguideupdated-101922.pdf"
    },
    {
      "title": "Telehealth resources",
      "url": "https://www.aota.org/practice/practice-essentials/telehealth-resources"
    },
    {
      "title": "NBCOT Certification Examination Handbook for OTR and COTA Candidates",
      "url": "https://www.nbcot.org/-/media/PDFs/Cert_Exam_Handbook.pdf"
    },
    {
      "title": "Become an occupational therapy practitioner | AOTA",
      "url": "https://www.aota.org/career/become-an-ot-ota"
    },
    {
      "title": "State Occupational Therapy Licensure | AOTA",
      "url": "https://www.aota.org/career/state-licensure"
    },
    {
      "title": "Eligibility | NBCOT",
      "url": "https://www.nbcot.org/get-certified/eligibility"
    },
    {
      "title": "Professions and protected titles | The HCPC",
      "url": "https://www.hcpc-uk.org/about-us/who-we-regulate/the-professions/"
    },
    {
      "title": "Occupational therapists | The HCPC",
      "url": "https://www.hcpc-uk.org/standards/standards-of-proficiency/occupational-therapists/"
    },
    {
      "title": "Standards of continuing professional development | The HCPC",
      "url": "https://www.hcpc-uk.org/standards/standards-of-continuing-professional-development/"
    },
    {
      "title": "Psychometric Properties of the COPM | COPM",
      "url": "https://www.thecopm.ca/casestudy/psychometric-properties-of-the-copm/"
    },
    {
      "title": "Tip #9 Teasing out Performance and Satisfaction",
      "url": "https://www.thecopm.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Tip-9-Teasing-out-Performance-and-Satisfaction.pdf"
    },
    {
      "title": "Practice Guidelines and Evidence-Based Clinical Resources | AOTA",
      "url": "https://www.aota.org/practice/practice-essentials/evidencebased-practiceknowledge-translation/practice-guidelines"
    },
    {
      "title": "AOTA Systematic Review Guide",
      "url": "https://www.aota.org/-/media/corporate/files/practice/practice-essentials/ebp/aota-systematic-review-guide.pdf"
    }
  ],
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
}