The OTA Club at Manchester Community College

What is the OTA Club?

The OTA Club at Manchester Community College is an organization that is open to all OTA students. Club members work together to promote an understanding of occupational therapy at Manchester Community College and throughout the community by participating in service projects. Members support one another during their coursework and also have the opportunity to develop leadership skills that will follow them throughout their careers.

Our club started back in the early ---- and has participated in numerous activities over the years. The club has had raffles, bake sales, ----, has participated in ----, and attended state and national OT conferences.

What do we do?

To expand our knowledge, we sponsor or attend workshops on interesting topics. Club members sometimes attend state and national occupational therapy conferences.

Examples of our community and College service projects include:

• Developing and sponsoring a scholarship for OTA students
• Informational activities to celebrate OT month

The club uses fundraisers to help earn money to fund the activities. By doing so, we develop friendships and learn how to work as a team.

Meetings

Meetings are held ---

What is Occupational Therapy?

Occupational therapy practitioners provide services directed at enabling people to engage in the tasks and activities (the occupations) that are relevant to their daily lives. The occupation of self-care, for example, includes the activities of bathing, shaving, dressing and feeding, each of which requires varying degrees of skill in motor, perception, cognition and psychosocial functioning. The COTA's responsibilities include providing purposeful activity to restore lost physical, cognitive and psychosocial skills, training in the use of assistive devices, and adapting environments and occupations to enable successful and safe performance.

A child's occupation is play. Play encourages growth, exploration and development of social and cognitive skills. When a child is unable to enagage in play due to a physical or emotional limitation, their ability to grow and learn may be limited. Through the use of adapted toys and games, the child is able to engage in their occupation of play.

The occupation of a school-age child is learning. When a physical or emotional limitation exists, their ability to engage in learning is limited.

Occupation for an adult with cardiac problems may include learning to conserve energy while doing daily activities.

An occupation for the elderly may be encouraging and promoting participation in activities as well as maintaining personal independence.

Occupational Therapy provides service to those individuals whose abilities to cope with their occupations (tasks) of living are threatened or impaired by developmental deficits, the aging process, physical injury or illness, or psychological and social disability.

Certified Occupational Therapy Assistants (COTA) work under the supervision of and in collaboration with Registered Occupational Therapists (OTR) addressing an individual's functional abilities and limitations in performance of daily occupations.

The occupational therapist typically works in an interdisciplinary team with other health care professionals, such as the Physical Therapist, Social Worker, Speech Therapist, Registered Nurse, Medical Doctor, Psychologist and Nutritionist.

Check out this "Internet friendly" resume for an occupational therapy assistant