Occupational therapy
What is an “OT”?
An Occupational Therapist (OT) is a health care professional who works with people to help them do what they want to do and need to do in order to lead satisfying and productive lives. People of all ages with various physical and mental disorders are helped to overcome barriers to occupational performance. OTs help individuals to adapt to environments and they also adapt environments to individuals. The work of Occupational Therapists focuses on decreasing the impact of disability and enhancing quality of life.
OTs at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) are specialists in paediatrics. When a child is experiencing difficulty with daily functioning (in play, self care or school skills), an Occupational Therapist works with the child and family to facilitate the child's optimum potential.
The role of the OT is to plan and organize in-depth developmental, functional and feeding assessments and to develop and implement a plan of intervention for children and their families in collaboration with the health care team. The premise of Occupational Therapy is to promote and facilitate the development of skills and behaviours essential to daily living and to minimize the impact of impairment and/or disability on functional independence.
Occupational Therapists assess the level of function in the areas of: gross motor skills (quality of movements), fine motor skills, oral motor/feeding skills and swallowing function, perceptual skills, sensory function, personal-social skills, adaptive skills, visual-motor skills, functional communication skills, cognitive skills and activities of daily living.
Interventions are focused on the following areas: neurodevelopment, feeding, splinting, fine motor function, cognitive, visual-motor and perceptual function, sensory function, and activities of daily living. Interventions can include: direct therapeutic intervention, individual bedside programs, home programs, caregiver education and referral for follow-up therapy.
The Occupational Therapists at SickKids work in the following programs.
- Neonatology
- Neurosurgery & Trauma
- Burns & Plastics
- Cleft Lip & Palate/Craniofacial
- Transplant
- Orthopaedics
- Nephrology/Urology
- ENT/General Surgery
- Endocrine/Genetic/Metabolic
- Sensory-Motor Dyspraxia
- General Paediatrics
- Cardiology
- Critical Care
- Haematology/Oncology
- Infectious Diseases
- GI/Rheumatology/Chest
- Neurology
Academic and Clinical Specialist/Manager
The Academic and Clinical Specialists/Manager (ACS) are integral members of the Rehabilitation team. They are responsible for professional practice standards and evidence based practices, taking a mentoring role in the Department of Rehabilitation Services research activities; performing patient care functions within their practice area; and performing quality management, administrative, and group leadership functions within the Division of Occupational Therapy. They are responsible for the development of programs and program evaluation; facilitating education programs and services within their practice area and performing other duties consistent with the classification as delegated by the Academic and Clinical Director of Rehabilitation Services.
For more information, please contact:
Suzanne Breton
Academic and Clinical Specialist
Rehabilitation Services
The Hospital for Sick Children
email: Suzanne.Breton@sickkids.ca