Occupational Therapy Schools
You’ve decided that you want to be an occupational therapist. Bravo! Occupational therapy is an excellent career path; it is satisfying, rewarding and your job is helping others lead healthier, more active, productive lives. You’ve come to this site because you are looking for occupational therapy schools.
Shortly, you’ll see links to American and Canadian occupational therapy schools. Before getting to that, let’s further discuss learning about occupational therapy, and what occupational therapy is.
Occupational therapy is a learned discipline. Its aim is to enable those with difficulties – typically emotional, developmental, mental or physical – which are disabling – to be able to perform activities that have purpose and meaning, improving the quality of their lives. Occupational therapy treatments assist patients in developing, maintaining or recovering their ability to do “daily living” activities, giving them greater independence, self confidence and a sense of well being. Sometimes, an occupational therapist may help a patient to improve their basic abilities to reason and their motor skills – other times, the therapist will teach the patient to compensate for a longer-term or permanent motor skill loss.
Occupational therapy has a long history. In fact, in Ancient Greece, the physician Asclepiades utilized massage, exercise and other humane forms of treatment, such as music, on patients suffering from mental illness. Regrettably, humanity had a lapse of compassion and humane occupational therapy was nearly non existent by the medieval era; it had, instead, turned barbaric.
However, in the 1700s, the hospital system underwent several reformations. One such notable change was for patients to have leisure time and undergo physical activity and work instead of being restrained and chained. Today we may be shocked that this was considered revolutionary – but such is the evolution of occupational therapy.
The notion of occupational therapy as a profession was born early in the first decade of the 1900s – and it was controversial. Reasons for patient’s dysfunction were examined on levels that went beyond the physical. Economic and social factors, as well as biological predispositions, were taken into consideration, and in some of the early occupational therapy schools, the discipline began its transformation into the multifaceted modality it is today, utilizing diverse therapeutic tools, such as rehabilitation, orthopedics, self-help, social work, psychiatry and nursing – and in the process, even its detractors began to see that more benefits were derived, both for patient and practitioner, by these means than a rigid, one-sided approach.
There are certain necessary requirements to choosing an occupational therapy school. Applicants need to have one advanced degree, or more, or their master’s degree in occupational therapy to become an occupational therapist. Prior to attaining an occupational therapy master’s degree, college major courses are required; those appropriate include psychology, biology, anthropology, anatomy and the liberal arts. In the United States, occupational therapists must also be licensed; they cannot practice without. In order to be a licensed occupational therapist, you must complete and graduate from an accredited educational program, as well as pass a NCE (national certification exam). The job outlook for occupational therapists is good, and employment in this position is expected to grow at an above average rate through to 2018, with an average salary of nearly $70, 000.
What’s it like to work as an occupational therapist?
Once you’ve made it through occupational therapy schools, become licensed and set up practice, you can expect to assist your clients in all activity types; help them improve visual acuity and pattern discernment; help them increase their dexterity and strength; teach them reasoning skills, how to make decisions, improve their ability to solve problems, help them improve their memory, coordination and sequencing and strengthen their skills of perception (all this often using computer software); help them choose, or design and create, specialized equipment for them to use at home; develop computer adaptive equipment that clients with major limitations are still able to use, to improve their chances of communication and environmental control.
To be competent in so many activities, most occupational therapy schools involve over 1000 hours of hands-on training (supervised field work).
Remember, occupational therapy can encompass myriad duties and responsibilities – ultimately, though, they all “boil down” to one thing: Helping others live better.
Occupational Therapy Schools
Canadian Residents:
See below for a list of University Occupational Therapy Programs in Canada, listed by province and school name. For more information, contact each school individually.
University Occupational Therapy Programs in Canada
US Residents:
See below for a list from the American Occupational Therapy Association of Accredited Occupational Therapy Programs, both entry level and masters:
Accredited Occupational Therapy Programs in the United States
Thanks for reading; we hope you’ve found this post helpful in understanding the history of occupational therapy, as well as learning what is entailed in this profession, and finding the resources you need to choose occupational therapy schools.