We believe that occupational therapists are:
- skilled practitioners who understand occupation as powerful and fundamental to the human experience. As a result, occupation is always the focus of work with clients, and is used as both a means and an end in therapy.
- knowledgeable about influences on occupational performance, including factors that reside within the person, as well as aspects of the activities and demands of the environment.
- holistic, considering the physical, psychosocial, sensory, and cognitive aspects of people, the roles they need to satisfy, and the physical, social, and economic environment that surrounds them.
- experts at analyzing activities and adjusting them to achieve a “just-right” challenge for clients by utilizing many skills including creativity.
- able to evaluate and treat clients on multiple levels, including through remediation of person factors, through adaptation of activities or environments, through prevention initiatives and through working with systems.
- client-centered, working with diverse groups of people in a respectful manner and appreciating that clients may encompass individuals, families, caregivers, populations and systems. Thus, the client’s values, interests, roles, habits and routines are always a central factor when setting goals.
- compassionate, recognizing that the relationship between themselves and their clients is integral to the therapeutic process and is what allows clients to take risks, learn, and improve.
- exceptional communicators and collaborators, allowing them to successfully interact with clients, family members, stakeholders, and other healthcare professionals on the team.
- advocates, to better enable clients to reach their goals, and to support their profession in growing and thriving.
- evidence-based, with the ability to search for, identify, collate, synthesize and articulate data from various sources, then critically consider those data to inform their practice. Evidence informs occupational therapists’ professional reasoning and problem solving, and they are able to articulate the rationale for their decisions and acknowledge when they need to make adjustments in intervention to meet client goals.
- lifelong learners, constantly striving to improve their knowledge and skills, always with an eye to the future occupational needs of people, in order to provide the best quality care.