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Occupational therapists assess, plan, organize, and participate in rehabilitative programs that help restore vocational, homemaking, and daily living skills, as well as general independence, to disabled persons.
Occupational therapists (OTs) use many techniques to help people learn or re-learn to carry out the activities of daily living, such as eating, dressing, writing, cooking, and going to work. They work with people whose functioning is impaired by physical or mental illness, by injury, or by old age or developmental disabilities. OTs evaluate functional skills, train people to do such things as dress or drive a car in a new way, identify barriers to meaningful activities, and help people adapt activities or use adapted equipment to achieve self sufficiency.
The largest number of jobs was in hospitals. Other major employers were offices of other health practitioners (including offices of occupational therapists), public and private educational services, and nursing care facilities. Some occupational therapists were employed by home health care services, outpatient care centers, offices of physicians, individual and family services, community care facilities for the elderly, and government agencies.
$86,300
Employment of occupational therapists is projected to grow 17 percent from 2020 to 2030, much faster than the average for all occupations, according to the BLS.
About 10,100 openings for occupational therapists are projected each year, on average, over the decade. Many of those openings are expected to result from the need to replace workers who transfer to different occupations or exit the labor force, such as to retire.
A master’s degree or higher is the minimum education requirement.
Licensure is required in the state of Connecticut. Prerequisites: An approved degree. Licensing requires 24 weeks of supervised fieldwork experience and successful completion of the National Board for Certification in Occupational Therapy certification examination.
Please visit the State of Connecticut Department of Public Health website for more information.
American Occupational Therapy Association, Inc.
6116 Executive Boulevard, Suite 200
North Bethesda, MD 20852
800-SAY-AOTA
www.aota.org