The ongoing occupational therapy identity crisis: 2019 edition

What does it say about a group of professionals that can ' t agree on what titles to use to describe themselves?Several years ago I wrote a post entitled "Why students will be making elevator speeches to define occupational therapy for the next 100 years. "  The issue behind this is that some occupational therapists believe that the public does not recognize what the profession does and that it is important to have a handy 1 minute description.  The post describes the fact that the profession serially re-defines occupational therapy and that the constant tinkering with definitions contributes to the confusion.The problem that some people in the occupational therapy profession have with their self-identity now extends to the title that they want to use to represent themselves and whether or not they want to even use the national credentials that they have earned and that have given them the right to apply for state licensing.One point of genesis of this problem is with some occupational therapy assistants.  Specifically, some of them seem to regret the word ' assistant ' in their professional title.  Actually, occupational therapy was rather sensitive about the initial name designation because they used the title ' occupational therapy assistant, ' implying an assistant to a service - rather than what was done by their physical therapy or medical colleagues who use the title ' physical therapist assistant ' and ' physician assistant ' implying an assistant ...
Source: ABC Therapeutics Occupational Therapy Weblog - Category: Occupational Health Tags: OT practice policy Source Type: blogs