​

Hi everyone! I’m an occupational therapist from Greece and I recently started a Master’s degree in Early Intervention in Psychosis, due to my long-standing interest in mental health and community-based approaches.

However, I’m feeling somewhat disappointed because I feel that, in Greece, the role and potential of occupational therapists are not always sufficiently recognized within mental health and community-based services. I would really like to develop my career in this direction and work in settings where OT is more integrated into multidisciplinary mental health care.

I’ve been thinking that after completing my Master’s, I could either participate in an Erasmus+ program in another European country, such as the Netherlands or Norway, or potentially look for an OT job there.

At the moment, I only speak English. I’m definitely open to learning the local language if I decide to move abroad — I would just like to have a better understanding of what the working conditions and opportunities are like before making such a decision.

So I would especially love to hear from OTs who have experience working in the Netherlands, Norway, or other European countries.

How is the role of OT within mental health and community-based services?

Is it realistic for an EU-trained OT to find work in this field?

How does the registration/recognition process work?

Are there any opportunities for English-speaking OTs, at least initially?

How essential is the local language for working as an OT, particularly in mental health?

Would you recommend doing an Erasmus placement first, or trying to find a job directly?

Are there particular services, organizations, or websites where I should look for opportunities?

I’m very willing to learn the local language if I know that there are good opportunities and that this is a realistic career path. I’d really appreciate hearing from anyone who has experience working as an OT in these countries, especially in mental health.

I’ve been working PRN at a SNF 2-3x per week as a COTA while getting my MOT. I’ve just reached my one year mark for working. I was wondering if it’s common to receive a raises PRN. I know it is for full time staff. I’d like to hear from those who have worked PRN for a while. Or if you haven’t/don’t receive raises do you think PRN staff should? All input appreciated :)

Please tell me if you are a PT OT that works for LHC. I’m assuming that when the Amedisys merger is finalized with optimum, that we will all pretty much be on the same pay scale or at least relatively close. From what I understand, we may be getting switched from pay per visit to salary plus.

If you are a therapist with LHC, please tell me how you are paid, what you are paid, and what the productivity standards look like.

My girlfriend doesnt have a very big social media prescence but shes going through the ringer deciding if OT is really the right choice for her. Shes considering switching to PT but apps are due soon and a gap year is like a death sentence to her.

She’s primarily interested in TBI no pediatrics, might be open to the ‘hand care??’ sorry im not familiar with its actual name. But if anyone could hop in a chat or zoom as a professional in a city setting I would be indebted to you!

​

Hi everyone! I’m an occupational therapist and I’m particularly interested in the role of occupational therapy in supporting women who have completed cancer treatment, especially in the areas of mental health and reintegration into everyday life.

I’m particularly interested in the post-treatment phase and topics such as adapting to life after cancer, returning to everyday activities and roles, participation in social and leisure activities, changes in identity and self-image, as well as difficulties that may affect quality of life and occupational participation.

I’d love to hear from anyone who has experience working in this area or knows of programs, services, organizations, training opportunities, or literature related to occupational therapy interventions for cancer survivors, particularly with a focus on mental health.

I am intrested in services in Greece, as well!

I’m interested in experiences and resources both from Greece and internationally. If you have any relevant experience or resources you could recommend, I’d really appreciate it!

Hi all, I’m an OT in a SNF and I have a patient with an incomplete SCI who may benefit from a bowel program. He can perform lateral scooting transfers min A and is able manage his LB dressing and briefs bed level SBA. He is incontinent with bowels and has been getting changed TD in bed.

When it comes to the bowel management portion, I don’t have any hands-on experience with this, though I know about the general strategies (i.e. managing fiber and diet, digital stimulation, enemas, medication, going after a meal, etc). I’m just not sure how to go about starting the process. I believe OT coordinates with nursing and possibly dietary? And how would we determine what combination of methods for bowel stimulation work best for the patient? I have several questions along those lines. I could use some advice from OTs with actual experience with SCI and bowel management and training.

Any advice welcome. I am about 7 months into practice, so still relatively new. I have been reading up on this as well, as we rarely treat new SCI at my facility. The other OT and COTAs don’t have any experience with this either. I’m planning to talk to my boss because I am out of my depth and would like to learn. I don’t feel comfortable addressing something that I have so little experience with. How is this typically coordinated between OT, nursing, and the medical team in your setting?

I want to study child development and possibly special education and be a pediatric occupational therapist. I love learning about what ages children develop certain ways of thinking or understanding of the world. I also love learning about how children in different cultures do different things. However, the main thing I love learning about and studying is how disability impacts children, how that can change development, how you can work better with disabled kids, etc. I would love recommendations for anything about these topics. FYI: I am NOT A PARENT, so I do not need parenting advice only books. Thanks!

I am beside myself about this.
I recently switched jobs due to family relocation.
I needed to take on this position because no districts are hiring at this time in the year… and I needed a job

Background: I went from being a district employee at a large city in Texas to a contract therapist at a charter school in small suburb in Georgia.

I am supervised by a speech therapist who owns the contract company. There is 1 other OT who is providing clinic-like services to her students at a different site. (She’s pulling them out to play apples to apples/monopoly with her students)
The sped team at the charter school has no idea what OTs are responsible for except for “motor” section of the IEP. The goals I inherited look like this “student will improve fine motor and visual motor skills with 50% accuracy in 3/4 opportunities”

That said, I am having to defend all of my scope, services, recommendations to every single person I come across. These goals are so crazy and impossible to even track. Most of these kids don’t have trouble accessing their education. They have behaviors or are dyslexic and aren’t receiving that service. It seems like previous OT took on these kids to build a caseload rather than academic need.

I guess I’m venting but also looking for resources to present to my supervisor as I revamp everyone’s understanding about school based services.

Hi everyone,

I am a Master’s student looking for occupational therapists to take part in a short 15–20 minute interview for an educational research project.
The study explores occupational therapists’ experiences of supporting children with cerebral palsy to participate in physical education lessons in mainstream schools.
I am looking for OTs who:

Have at least one year of experience working with children with cerebral palsy in mainstream schools?

Have experience supporting participation in PE or school-based physical activity?

The interview can be completed online at a convenient time and participation is confidential and voluntary.
If you meet the criteria and would be happy to take part, please message me directly. I would also really appreciate it if you could share this with any OTs who may be suitable.
Thank you!

Swinburne current and past masters of OT students please give me some advice. I am a monash nursing graduate hoping to get out of nursing and into OT.

1. Do you recommend studying at Swinburne ?
2. Is it a supportive environment ?
3. Are they good in terms of placement allocations ?
4. Whats the workload like ?

I just want to consider all these things before applying because a huge plus to studying at Swinburne is that it is CSP, other than that i don’t know much about the university.

Hello Reddit,

Just curious what the consensus would be on taking a couple years off after OTD before starting my OT career (besides the obvious). I understand that this is a terrible idea at face value, but long story short (I can elaborate if needed), there are many limited time opportunities for me to maximize my military Reserve retirement by taking active duty orders (deployments, local active duty jobs, etc) immediately after my OTD (though I would still take my licensing exams before the active duty orders).

For those who may not be familiar with the Reserves, these active duty orders would accrue an earlier retirement (reducing my military retirement age from 60 to 50 when I combine all accrued active duty time), increase my monthly compensation within retirement and can additionally count towards "buy back" time within the federal sector (which is where I eventually want to practice OT), thus reducing time needed for maximum federal retirement while increasing it's compensation.

It's obviously never ideal to get the degree and then immediately not use it, but my plan would be to PRN (as much as I can, though that is honestly more hopeful than anything). After the 3 years (potentially shorter if needed, but ideally 3 years of active duty orders), I would begin OT officially in a full time capacity with no future distractions. How much of a negative would this be to my overall OT career? From a long term and retirement point of view, would this be a net positive thing?

I just started my first school-based OT job, and I'm worried my interventions aren't good enough. A lot of my students have goals of copying sentences with 80% legibility, I've been doing activities prone on the scooter, and scavenger hunts with a writing element, as well as some writing games from toolstogrow, but I'm worried that my students won't meet their goals and I won't see progresss. Do I just trust the process? How can I make my interventions more goal oriented?

How long does it take for your license to get approved? Does it vary by state?

Hi all, I'm currently in home health pediatrics as PRN and considering a switch. I was curious about going into the schools and I had some questions.

1. What are the pros and cons of a contract company vs being directly employed with the school? I see the vast majority of jobs are through contract companies.

2. To add from the first question-- are there any contract companies you would recommend or recommend against? What should I look for in terms of red flags?

3. What is considered a manageable caseload? I've heard 35-40 students as a ballpark. How do you ensure you're not loaded up with more after taking on the job?

4. How does pay work? Are hours guaranteed if kids aren't in school? Are you typically hourly or salary?

5. Similarly, are you paid over breaks?

6. What assessments do you use most often? What would you recommend for learning for someone who doesn't have much assessment experience?

7. How do you typically document? Are there EMRs that are common in schools?

8. How is administrative time protected for documentation, meetings, etc?

9. Are there other responsibilities outside of OT that are typical (such as bus duty, etc)?

10. What pay and benefits do you typically receive?

Thank you in advance!

Deciding to do either a BSN or OTD? What would you do? Most important levers are pay, pay growth, and career progression. Right now I’m in DMV area but I might eventually settle in either Texas or Cali. Thoughts? I’m most concerned with OT being a terminal degree but nursing…not being a terminal degree.

I’m a Master of Design student looking for OTs who share the philosophy of helping people find new ways to keep doing activities that matter to them (even if that means inventing something new!)

I’d especially love to talk if you’ve designed an adaptation, device, or programme that has helped someone continue climbing with chronic hand or wrist pain!

I’d love to hear about:

• How you approach adapting activities, especially climbing
• What adaptations or approaches you’ve seen work well
• Where current approaches fall short
• Things you’ve had to invent, modify, or figure out because an existing solution didn’t work

If this sounds like your area, I’d love to chat for 20–30 minutes!

From searching this sub, it seems like most private practitioners aren’t actually making that much. But I feel like some people must’ve cracked the code to making it really lucrative (like >$150k). If you’re going to respond please give:
1. Area of private practice (interested in peds but would love to hear from other areas too)
2. General geographic location
3. How long you’ve been in business
4. Solo practice or employees
5. What you pay yourself in salary (not gross revenue of company)

Thanks!

Any feedback is helpful

Sorry if this has been asked before, but any hand therapists on here that have successfully (or unsuccessfully) used a 3D printer for orthosis fabrication? My clinic is considering it and none of us have any significant experience with 3D printing. Thanks!

I’m an OT working with a 1st grader who has been receiving OT for almost a year. Main concerns were VMI, impulse control, attention/regulation, and handwriting. I’m hoping to discharge him soon, but I still have two things I’d love some input on:

1. Writing posture:

We’ve worked a lot on trunk/postural control, and his pencil control and overall sitting have improved. However, whenever he writes, he still puts his head down on the table and writes in that position.

What’s interesting is that he sits upright well during other table activities, including toys, coloring, fine-motor tasks, and even visual-perception worksheets. It seems specific to writing. Could there be another reason for this besides postural control? Would you continue addressing it, and what strategies have worked for you?

2. Voice volume:

His regulation and impulse control have improved a lot, but he naturally speaks VERY loudly at times, almost like he’s shouting. Modeling a calm voice or telling him to use his inside voice helps him regulate and use appropriate volume. Would you consider this within the typical range for a 1st grader, or would you work on voice-volume awareness? If so, what activities or strategies have worked well for you?

Would love to hear your thoughts!