Neurodiversity Affirming OT for Adults

The latest clinical practice guideline for occupational therapy for autistic people across the lifespan urges us to shift away from deficit models toward neurodiversity-affirming, strengths-based care.

But, what does this look like in practice?

We know from the research that there are barriers at every level to delivering the type of support we aspire to- from rigid service silos to inconsistent legislation.

That’s why I’m so excited today to welcome to the podcast someone who is charting a new way forward: Samantha Valasek, OTD, OTR/L Director of OT Services, at Spectrum Psych in LA.

Samantha delivers OT services alongside psychotherapy and psychiatry to clients with autism, ADHD, anxiety, & mood concerns.

I can’t wait to hear from Samantha about what assessment, treatment, and interprofessional collaboration looks like in her day to day practice.

And most importantly: what it looks like—both as individual practitioners and as a collaborative team—to deliver care that supports our clients in ways that are truly meaningful to them.

1. You will be able to identify occupation-based assessments for adults that are neurodiversity affirming.

2. You will be able to recognize evidence-based ways to deliver OT in a way that is neurodiversity affirming.

• Intro

• Discussion

  1. How did you become interested in neurodiversity affirming OT?

  2. Tell me about how you found Spectrum Psych and your work there.

  3. Before we talk about the details of your practice, I’d love your reaction to the paper “How Can We Make Therapy Better for Autistic Adults.”

  4. How do people find your services at Spectrum Psych?

  5. What is OT’s role in the evaluation process?

  6. Out of curiosity, what’s a guess on the percentage  of people you see who have a new ADHD/Autism diagnosis as an adult? And how does that change your care?

  7. What are some of the main areas of difficulty people seek your support for? & and what are common interventions you turn to?

  8. How do the different professions communicate with each other? Are you on a shared EMR?

  9. In California, OT is a qualified mental health practitioner- do OTs need a similar status around the country? If so, how do we get there?

• Live Q&A

• Closing

• How can we make therapy better for autistic adults? Autistic adults’ ratings of helpfulness of adaptations to therapy

• Contextual factors influencing neuro-affirming practice: Identifying what helps or hinders implementation in health and social care

• Occupational Therapy Practice Guidelines for Autistic People Across the Lifespan

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OT Potential pays guest speakers an honorarium for their participation, either directly or to an institution of the speaker's choosing at their request. We invite guests whose expertise often comes from practices, programs, or building products in their field. Where a speaker has a financial interest in the subject of a course, we disclose it below so you can weigh it for yourself.

OT Potential's interest in this topic: We have no financial stake in this topic.

Speaker interests: Samantha Valasek has no financial interest in this topic to disclose.