Occupational Therapist

Careers in Mental Health

Mia Boesen, MOTR/L
Occupational Therapist

Generic Information

Job Responsibilities:

Evaluates and identifies existing skills or opportunities..
Evaluates functional living skills, functional cognition, sensory regulation and vocational assessment, values, beliefs, motivations, and physiological and psychosocial functions.
Develops treatment plans and goals, makes recommendations and provides consultations to create opportunities, promotes wellness, remediates or restores skills, modifies or adapts the environment or activity.
Creates and utilizes treatment plans to determine interventions or procedures to promote, enhances or maintains safety and performance in activities of daily living (ADL), instrumental activities of daily living (IADL), education, work, play, leisure and social participation.
Provides training in self-care, self-management, home management, and community/work reintegration.
Establishes, remediates or restores physical, cognitive, neuromuscular, sensory functions or behavior skills and abilities.
Compensates, modifies or adapts activity or environment to enhance performance.
Provides assessment, design, fabrication, and training in assistive/adaptive technology.
Documents results of assessments and evaluations, prepares and communicates treatment plans.
Provides consultation and training to patients and staff regarding occupational therapy treatment modalities.

Certification Requirements:

Licenses are issued by the Oregon Occupational Therapy Licensing Board

Essential Skills:

Empathetic active listening skills
Clinical knowledge, skills, and abilities in working with persons with mental illness
Ability to function independently and as a part of a patient-centered interdisciplinary treatment team
Highly attentive to detail, confidentiality, and accuracy
Verbal and written communication skills

Other Job Settings:

Hospitals
Daycare facilities
Rehabilitation facilities
Schools (k-12 and university)
Community centers

Overview

As a part of patient-centered interdisciplinary care teams, Occupational Therapists support patients by teaching a variety of skills through conducting and analyzing standardized assessments, evaluations and interviews. These skills include activities of daily living (i.e. dressing, bathing, communicating one’s needs). Occupational Therapy not only prepares patients for employment, it prepares patients for an independent life after discharge. Physical, social and emotional independence, sensory regulation, and self-awareness are primary among the many skills Occupational Therapists cultivate.