A Vision for the Future of OT

Earn 1 hour of continuing education by joining the OT Potential Club after listening to this OT Potential Podcast course on the future of OT.

What is the future of OT? How will your own OT career look over the next decade? How will our profession change and evolve?

The journal article we explore in this podcast is very concise, but it certainly packs a punch. It lays out a vision set by the American Occupational Therapy Association for where they would like to see the occupational therapy profession by 2025. 

We’ll kick off the podcast by reviewing the article. Then, we’re thrilled to have Arameh Anvarizadeh, Vice President of the AOTA Board of Directors, join us for a discussion. She will share how the Vision has changed since its original publication. And, most importantly, we’ll discuss what this Vision means for practicing OTs—and how we can build our future with intention in this rapidly evolving world. 

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Primary Journal Article Explored

When you log in, be sure to check out the OT Potential Club’s written breakdown of the following research article. Then, share your questions and thoughts with fellow practitioners.

American Occupational Therapy Association. (2017). Vision 2025. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 71, 7103420010. 

Supporting Research and Journal Articles

Additional papers on the future of OT

Pattison, M., Baptiste, S., & McKinstry, C. (2018). A vision splendid; visioning for the future of occupational therapy. Australian Occupational Therapy Journal, 65(3), 238-242. doi:10.1111/1440-1630.12490

Hammell, K. W. (2018). Building globally relevant occupational therapy from the strength of our diversity. World Federation of Occupational Therapists Bulletin, 75(1), 13-26. doi:10.1080/14473828.2018.1529480

Research specifically related to the effectiveness and need for OT

Gill Livingston, Andrew Sommerlad, Vasiliki Orgeta, Sergi G Costafreda, Jonathan Huntley, David Ames, Clive Ballard, Sube Banerjee, Alistair Burns, Jiska Cohen-Mansfield, Claudia Cooper, Nick Fox, Laura N Gitlin, Robert Howard, Helen C Kales, Eric B Larson, Karen Ritchie, Kenneth Rockwood, Elizabeth L Sampson, Quincy Samus, Lon S Schneider, Geir Selbæk, Linda Teri, Naaheed Mukadam, Dementia prevention, intervention, and care, The Lancet, Volume 390, Issue 10113, 2017, Pages 2673-2734, ISSN 0140-6736

Rogers, A. T., Bai, G., Lavin, R. A., &; Anderson, G. F. (2016). Higher Hospital spending on occupational therapy is associated with lower readmission rates. Medical Care Research and Review, 74(6), 668-686. doi:10.1177/1077558716666981

Learning Objectives

• You will be able to recognize some current gaps in our profession that the AOTA Vision pushes us to address.
• You will be able to describe why increasing occupational therapy’s diversity, equity and inclusion is critical in preparing us to meet the societal issues of the future. 

Agenda

Intro (5 minutes)

Breakdown and analysis of journal article (5 minutes)

• How was the AOTA 2025 Vision drafted?
• The AOTA 2025 Vision
• The Guideposts of the Vision
• The UPDATED version of the Vision
• Takeaways for OT practitioners

Discussion on practical implications for OTs (with guest Arameh Anvarizadeh) (50 minutes)

• Can you tell us the story of how you became an OT—and then what made you want to become involved in the leadership of AOTA?
• Can you give us a little background on how the diversity, equity, and inclusion pillar was added?
• As you read through the core vision statement, what does it mean to you?
• How would you like to see busy, practicing OTs interacting with Vision 2025?
• When we look at the pillars, how do you personally process each one for yourself as an OT?
  • Effective
  • Leaders
  • Collaborative
  • Accessibility/Equity, Inclusion, Diversity
• Fast forward to 2025: what’s one or two things you’d like to see evolve or change for our next Vision?

Contact Hours

1 hour (0.1 AOTA CEUs). Released online from Aurora, NE.

Target Audience/Educational Level

Our target audience is occupational therapy practitioners who are looking to learn about the vision for the future of OT. The educational level is introductory.

Instructional Methods/Registration/Special Needs Requests/Cancellation Policy

This course is an independent/self-study course delivered via podcast on iTunes, Spotify and Google Play. Explore your listening options on the OT Potential Podcast page.

If you need accommodations to take this course, please contact us and we will address your needs on an individual basis.

If this course were to be cancelled, please see our cancellation policy on our terms page.

Course Completion Requirements

In order to receive a certificate for this course, you must first listen to the podcast in its entirety. Then, you will need to take the test (found at the top of this page) and earn 75% or higher. If you pass, a certificate will be automatically generated and sent to your email.

Financial and Non-financial Disclosures

It is the policy of OT Potential to disclose any financial and non-financial interest the provider or instructor may have in a product or service mentioned during an activity. This is to ensure that the audience is made aware of any bias of the speaker.

We here at OT Potential have no financial stake in this topic. Our guest, Arameh Anvarizadeh, has no financial interest in this topic to disclose.

Speakers

Arameh Anvarizadeh, OTD, OTR/L, FAOTA:

Arameh Anvarizadeh, OTD, OTR/L, FAOTA is the Director of Admissions and Associate Professor of Clinical Occupational Therapy at the USC Mrs. T.H. Chan Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy. Dr. Anvarizadeh is responsible for developing the holistic admissions process and for maintaining effective admissions strategies and procedures within the division. She also oversees each academic program and makes certain the division is filled with high caliber diverse students.

Dr. Anvarizadeh is a Founding Member and Chair of the Coalition of Occupational Therapy Advocates for Diversity (COTAD), a non-profit organization striving to empower occupational therapy leaders to engage in practices that increase diversity, equity, inclusion, justice, anti-racism and anti-oppression for a more transformative occupational therapy profession. She is responsible for developing the COTAD toolkit, the Ignite Series, and COTAD Chapters. She tirelessly works to support and establish COTAD Chapters at academic programs across the country while empowering students to facilitate dialogue, awareness, and change related to issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion, anti-racism, and anti-oppression within the profession and beyond.

Dr. Anvarizadeh recently made history as the youngest and first African American/Iranian woman to become Vice President of the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA). She is also the youngest woman of color inducted into the prestigious Roster of Fellows (FAOTA). Besides being the current AOTA Vice President, Dr. Anvarizadeh previously held the leadership positions as the Credential Review and Accountability Committee (CRAC) Chair, as a Representative Assembly Leadership Committee (RALC) member, as a Governance Task Force member, and as the liaison between the Governance and DEI task forces. Dr. Anvarizadeh was also a member of the AOTA Special Task Force on Entry Level Education, and a crucial contributor to the professional dialogue on the entry level degree requirements.

She is a recent alumna of the 2020 cohort for the Executive Leadership Program for Multicultural Women. Within the Occupational Therapy Association of California (OTAC), is a recipient of OTAC’s Janice Matsutsuyu Outstanding Service Award and Vision Award. She previously held the position of Communications Chair for seven years. Dr. Anvarizadeh is an accomplished speaker who has lectured in numerous state and national conferences, as well as internationally at the World Federation of Occupational Therapists’ (WFOT) congress. Dr. Anvarizadeh is passionate about building healthy, diverse communities through inclusion, equity, empowerment, and advocacy. Using her skills as an occupational therapist and her passion for people, Dr. Anvarizadeh helps others discover, cultivate and spread their maximum potential.

Sarah Lyon, OTR/L:

Sarah’s passion is helping fellow OT practitioners translate evidence into daily practice. Sarah earned her BA in religion from St. Olaf College, then earned her master’s degree in occupational therapy from New York University in 2011. Since then, she’s worked in numerous facilities, including a critical access hospital, an acute trauma hospital, and a state inpatient psychiatric hospital.

Sarah is the founder/owner of OT Potential. Read more about OT Potential here.

This course was designed to meet your continuing education requirements

We designed the courses in the Club to meet the requirements for “online” and “independent/self-study” courses. For more details read our blog post: Can I earn OT CEUS from a podcast? To verify the requirements from your specific state (within the US), check out our post, OT Continuing Education Explained. If you are outside of the United States and have questions, please contact us.

We are proud to be an AOTA Approved Provider and to meet the requirements for your NBCOT renewal.

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