OC TH 6010 - History, Foundations, Leadership & Scholarship of Occupational Therapy Practice

This foundational course provides a broad and critical overview of occupational therapy practice through the context of time. The core concept of occupational therapy, occupation, will be presented against a backdrop of historical events, enabling the student to develop a basic understanding of the growth and development of occupational therapy as a health profession. Occupational science will be introduced as an academic discipline that examines occupational therapy's core idea: occupation, and its role in human life and current and future occupational therapy practice. Occupational Therapy and related theories and frameworks will be introduced that form the basis of practice for occupational therapists to establish, maintain, and restore occupational engagement, performance, participation, justice, and health. Clinical reasoning, standards of practice, values and ethics, and professional roles of OTR & COTA will be introduced. Various professional, leadership, advocacy, and supervisory roles will be introduced and self-evaluated, culminating in a leadership development plan that the student will reflect on and refine throughout the program.