Careers in Occupational Therapy are not very popular unlike those in banking and finance. What many people are not aware of is that profession as an Occupational Therapist (OT) is now sharing the center stage as one of the highly in-demand jobs in the US.

Occupational Therapy Schools has significantly increased the enrollments in the last 5 years. There are estimated 29% Occupational therapist that are employed in the health care service. A huge percentage of OT is working in hospitals and nursing homes and a small percentage are working in the private homes. In the US, there are already 104,500 OT registered professionals in this field in 2008. The number is projected to increase around 26% between the year of 2009 and 2018. It is because of the increase in the demand for their service.

The OT has a very special contribution in the society. The role of an OT is primarily to educate people by helping the patient to improve their disabling situation and help the patient to live a meaningful and enjoyable life. The OT trains and facilitates activities for the patient to help him function normally in the day-to-day task, more effectively and pleasantly. There is a misconception that OT and a Physical Therapist (PT) are the same. Well, there are some related work functions but OT has a broader its scope than a PT. The specialization of a PT is to improve the physical condition of the patient, while the OT specializes in designing strategies to help improve or develop the mental, physical and emotional circumstances of a person.

A career in Occupational Therapy is a vocational profession. An OT is someone who helps out emotional, mental and physically suffering patients. Occupational Therapy does not perform diagnosis though as this is the task of the medical doctor. Rather, the OT devises therapeutic treatment methods to facilitate and guide the person to function maximally despite the medical diagnosis. This usually involves a series of work-outs, daily mental activities and examination to check the improvement of the patient.The common patients of an OT are the children who have medical condition of Autism, people who have traumatic incidents, persons who have development problems or delay, individuals suffering from Attention Deficit disorders, and people who have difficulty executing daily tasks.

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