25+ Creative Ways To Celebrate OT Month: Advocacy and Activities
Celebrate Occupational Therapy Month with 25+ fun and low-cost ideas! From classroom activities to therapist appreciation and OT advocacy, this guide has everything you need to share the impact of OT this April. Plus, 10 FREE social media shareable content graphics.
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Occupational Therapy Month
Occupational therapy can sometimes be misunderstood. So let’s discuss what occupational therapy is, our purpose as practitioners, and ideas to help celebrate occupational therapy month.
What Is Occupational Therapy?
Occupational therapy is a healthcare profession that helps people across the life span to:
- Build new skills whether through play and school based skills, employment and community-based skills, socialization, as well as skills needed for daily living such as bathing, dressing and eating.
- Regain lost skills after an injury or disease progression
- Maintain daily living, play, leisure, community-based, work-based and school-based skills
Occupational therapy practitioners, both therapists and assistants, use a holistic approach focusing on the whole person, their individual needs whether physical, social or psychological while focusing on what is important to the individual and family when designing interventions and goals.
Occupational Therapy Workplace Settings
As rehabilitation professionals, we work in a variety of settings including, but not limited to:
- Hospitals
- Mental health
- School systems
- Private practice pediatrics
- Outpatient rehab
- Older adult care
- Dementia care
- Stroke rehab
- Home health
- Community centers
- Sports rehab
- Vocational rehab
OTs work closely with physical therapy and speech-language pathology as a rehabilitation team to collaborate and problem solve to help clients reach their goals. Unlike physical therapy which focuses on strength and endurance, occupational therapy works toward applying those strengths to daily occupations.
Occupational Therapy Interventions
Depending on the setting and age of clients, occupational therapy interventions can include but are not limited to:
- Modifying the home, work, or school environment to meet the needs of clients such as home safety for individuals with dementia or modifications to enhance learning at school.
- How to use assistive technology safely and correctly, and customize assistive tech based on the client’s needs.
- Create a personalized home exercise plan to improve core and upper body strength and fine motor skills such a in-hand manipulation skills and the pincer grasp to enhance daily living and school-based skills.
- Educate clients, family members, and caregivers about a condition, injury, precautions, and a home exercise program.
- Cognitive rehabilitation a type of intervention designed to enhance executive functioning, memory, attention, and mental processing which includes cognitive re-training and compensatory strategies.
- Coping strategies to help improve emotional well-being.
- Enhance performance of activities of daily living (ADLs) such as eating, bathing and dressing as well as instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs) including managing finances, housekeeping, and grocery shopping.
- Aquatic therapy a type physical rehabilitation using a warm water pool to re-train and strengthen muscles, improve mobility, and reduce pain.
- Hippotherapy a type of therapeutic horseback riding.
- Social skills training
- Orthotics and prosthetics
- Maternal health
- Fatigue management and energy conservation (click here for tips)
- Lymphedema management
- Psychosocial support
- Cancer rehabilitation
Elevate your practice and give yourself a little selfo-care with
The Intentional Practitioner
workbook for rehabilitation professionals
What is the Occupation in Occupational Therapy?
What are daily occupations? It’s the activities we do on a daily basis. Daily occupations include, but are not limited to:
- Getting dressed, brushing teeth, and combing your hair
- Cooking, eating and cleaning up after meals
- Using the toilet
- Socializing
- Leisure activities and hobbies like such as playing board games and card games
- Bathing and showering
- Washing clothes
- Work skills
- School based skills such as handwriting, letter writing, and socializing
Occupational therapy practitioners, both therapists and assistants, help clients increase their independence in these daily skills. As practitioners, we often focus on occupation-based interventions.
For example, instead of just focusing the efficiency and strength of a fine motor skill such as the pincer grasp, OT practitioners will often apply those fine motor skills to a specific task such as buttoning a shirt or snapping peas for meal prep. This is the occupation in occupational therapy, participating in meaningful and purposeful activities or occupations.
Adult vs. Kid Occupations?
- Play skills
- School-based skills such as handwriting, scissoring, participating in class, being ready for learning
- Socializing with peers and adults
- Chores
- Hobbies and sports
- Exercise
- Activities of daily living such as getting dressing, brushing teeth and hair, eating, and toileting
- Exhibit optimal sensory processing so that children can navigate their environments, be ready for learning, and follow directions without adverse reactions.
What Is OT Month? (And Why Do We Celebrate It?)
I love it that we celebrate occupational therapy. And for the whole month too. We celebrate occupational therapy month to:
- Raise awareness about occupational therapy as a profession.
- Celebrate practitioners and their impactful work within communities
- Advocate for the profession at the state and national level
- Educate communities about occupational therapy and its services
- Celebrate client’s wins this month and every day of the year!
Advocacy: Ways to educate your community
- Share your OT story in person or online about the occupational therapy practitioner in your life.
- Print off the OT month graphics and share them with your rehabilitation team. Get all 10 OT month graphics sent directly to your inbox by signing up for the newsletter below.
- Give a shout out using the hashtag #OTMonth
- Take a picture of the occupational therapy practitioners in your office and share with the office newsletter or on your socials.
- Reach out to doctor’s offices about the services your practice provides.
- Share your OT story and reason why you became an OT practitioner.
- Help spread awareness about OT, our services, and its impact.
- Host a learning luncheon with OT practitioners and members of your community to help spread word about our amazing profession- think families and parents, local businesses, elected local officials, other medical professionals. Provide lunch, a presentation, and an opportunity for your attendees to make connections.
- Share on your socials the OT month graphics by entering your email below and signing up for the newsletter.
- If you are a pediatric therapist, host a family fun day at your school or therapy center. Introduce parents to therapy equipment often used and the reason behind it. Set up activities for kids to play and socialize, and host breakout sessions on various topics.
- Create free OT handouts to give out or share online such as hand strengthening exercises, energy conservation strategies, or exercises to strengthen visual perception.
Support For Practitioners: Celebrate the practitioner in your life
- Bake your favorite goodies and share
- Celebrate the practitioner(s) and/or therapy students in your life with The Intentional Practitioner workbook.
- Make a handmade card and write a ‘thank you’ or ‘thinking of you’ card.
- Bring a charcuterie board to share with OTs, assistants, and other therapy practitioners.
- Purchase OT swag either on Etsy, or other online sites such as Amazon and wear it around town.
- Provide lunch or snacks for the staff
- Decorate the office (once approved) with occupational therapy posters and OT swag. Check out the FREE printables by signing up for the newsletter below.
Self Care For Practitioners: Because you deserve a celebration too!
- Purchase OT swag shirts and stickers for you and/or your colleagues.
- Give yourself a little self-care with The Intentional Practitioner workbook
- Plan a day to celebrate together: Go out to eat or spend an afternoon at a park
- Make or print off graphics featuring OT. Sign up for the newsletter below and get all 10 graphics sent to your inbox.
- Purchase OT swag either on Etsy, or other online sites such as Amazon.
- Create an adult obstacle course for the practitioners at your office. Have a competition: occupational therapy against physical therapy against speech language pathology. Obstacles can include relay races with animal walks, scooter boards, hopping, heel-to-toe walking, balancing obstacles, and bean bags thrown at targets.
- Host a once a month OT club where you share favorite resources, upcoming courses, favorite books, new research articles published, and OT news from around the world.
- Start an OT or rehabilitation therapy book club for OT, SLP, and PT with your fellow colleagues.
Happy OT Month Conclusion
I hope you have a fabulous month celebrating all things occupational therapy! Let me know how you used the OT month shareables by commenting below.
The Intentional Practitioner Workbook
Give yourself, fellow PT, OT, and SLP practitioners and students a little self-care with The Intentional Practitioner workbook. Click the button below for details.
