When the profession of OT was founded in 1917 the name occupational therapy was chosen because of its ambiguity as well as its comprehensiveness. It allowed all of the divergent practitioners to ally with one another despite their special interests. I have written extensively on this topic and defy anyone to find a definitive explanation of the field. I have tried, and as close as I come is that we are concerned with (and our knowledge is based on) mind and body, physical environment, and social environment, all within a developmental perspective. All of these interact within occupation, or activity, if you prefer. I elect to use activity as much as occupation as acceptable terms, because to eliminate either is to throw the baby out with the bath water. Check out my last book, OT Activities for Practice and Teaching, with Whurr Press, or any of my Advance articles.
Dr. Estelle Breines -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Ron Carson Sent: Monday, July 11, 2005 1:56 AM To: Joe Wells Subject: Re[2]: [OTlist] Army OT/PT Descriptions Hello Joe: Good idea to do further investigating and great links, thanks! The Army brochure that I used for my quoted does contain comprehensive info about OT. Perhaps I should have included some quotes relating to group therapy, alcohol rehab, etc. Maybe I missed it, but I haven't read anything about the Army using OTA's. I am interested to hear if they in fact, they do. One of the reasons I posted my original message is because of the recent discussions about marketing "out product". I am convinced that our product is too diverse, inconsistent and misunderstood to market. Until, the profession of OT's internal structure is more clearly defined, I think that marketing is not a good use of resources. Somehow, AOTA and practicing OT's, must develop a model of theory and practice that is specialized, understood by both internal and external audiences, deliverable and practiced. To date, in my opinion this has not happened. ----- Original Message ----- From: Joe Wells <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Sunday, July 10, 2005 To: [email protected] <[email protected]> Subj: [OTlist] Army OT/PT Descriptions JW> Hi Ron: JW> Just out of curiousity, I checked the Walter Reed Medical Center website JW> http://www.wramc.amedd.army.mil/departments/Ortho/PhysMed/otscope.htm. The JW> OT scope explained there is a little more comprehensive. I also checked the JW> PT scope at JW> http://www.wramc.amedd.army.mil/departments/Ortho/PhysMed/ptscope.htm and JW> found the scopes to have a lot of areas overlapping. In the military, my JW> guess is that the model is very transdisciplinary. I believe the student JW> appointment is an internship (level II fieldwork) affiliation since there JW> are no OT academic programs in the Army, although as you mentioned, they do JW> have a DPT program at the US Army- Baylor University JW> (http://www.amsc.amedd.army.mil/training.asp). The army does train its own JW> OTAs. More on the OT internship program JW> http://www.amsc.amedd.army.mil/Doc/otintership.pdf. Do we have any army OTs JW> on the board ? It would be nice to hear about their army expeeiences. JW> Other Army sites: JW> http://www.wramc.amedd.army.mil/departments/Ortho/index.htm JW> http://www.amsc.amedd.army.mil/about.asp JW> Joe -- Unsubscribe? [EMAIL PROTECTED] Change options? www.otnow.com/mailman/options/otlist_otnow.com Archive? www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] Help? [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- Unsubscribe? [EMAIL PROTECTED] Change options? www.otnow.com/mailman/options/otlist_otnow.com Archive? www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] Help? [EMAIL PROTECTED]
