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Extracurricular Engagement in Developing a Sense of Belonging in Hybrid Students

kurt hExtracurricular Engagement in Developing a Sense of Belonging in Hybrid Students 
Kurt K. Hubbard, PhD, OTD, OTR/L, FAOTA
The Role of Extracurricular Activities in Student Success
 
At times, educators may overlook that the success of their students is often related to involvement outside the classroom, whether traditional, hybrid, or online. Participation in extracurricular activities has been associated with enhanced social networks, increased self-esteem, and a greater sense of connection to the college community (Bamford & Heugh, 2021). 
 
Sense of Belonging
 
Belonging reflects one’s perceptions of acceptance and connection and can have an overall effect on one’s well-being (Winstone et al., 2022). Research has supported the belief that extracurricular activities are of value to students for multiple reasons, including one’s well-being (Knifsend, 2020). However, while there is a growing body of research on the sense of belonging in higher education, the research that needs to be better understood is how college students in a hybrid setting describe the role that extracurricular engagement plays in developing a sense of belonging. In addition, understanding how students interpret the value and importance of participating in extracurricular activities related to their academic success is of paramount interest in education.
 
Belongingness Theory
 
The Belongingness Theory describes a sense of belonging as referring to personal experiences of connection and acceptance within a social group or community. According to Baumeister and Leary (1995), the definition of belongingness is the fundamental need to belong and maintain strong, stable interpersonal relationships. Research has looked at how a sense of belonging can impact a student’s online learning experience (Peacock et al., 2020). A sense of belonging can also impact their persistence and academic success (Gopalan & Brady, 2020). Ahn and Davis (2023) state that a sense of belonging impacts retention rates at the university level.
 
College Programs and Social Support
 
O’Sullivan et al. (2019) discussed how college programs can provide social support, social networks, and adequate social capital for students. The college environment, whether traditional, hybrid, or online, needs to provide a better understanding for leaders, administrations, and faculty to better serve students. Creating an experience that supports and promotes a sense of belonging through involvement in extracurricular activities and other best practices for student engagement is an important aspect of the student experience. Bergmark and Westman (2018) cited the importance of belonging and well-being as intricate components for student engagement.
 
Extracurricular Engagement in Hybrid Settings
 
However, there remains the problem space of understanding how engagement, particularly extracurricular engagement, plays a role in the development of a sense of belonging and how this is done in hybrid settings. Hybrid programs aim to serve student populations that include diverse cultural identities, socioeconomic backgrounds, and age groups. It is important to recognize the various demographics that may exist within the hybrid college experience and the need for every student to develop a sense of belonging. Extracurricular engagement is a key component for social integration outside the classroom (King et al., 2021). To this end, extracurricular activities can be a resource for fostering a sense of belonging among students. Earlier research has identified some benefits to extracurricular engagement, including building relationships with support networks, chances for skills development, and community connections (Pedler et al., 2022). Strayhorn (2019) states that the development of a sense of belonging is significant in a student’s pursuit of success.
 
Conclusion
 
Therefore, further consideration and research may inform institutional strategies for student engagement as well as contribute to the understanding of how extracurricular engagement and a sense of belonging are key factors in the success of a student. More research needs to be done to address student perceptions of belonging in relation to their engagement in social activities. This is an endeavor that is well worth considering moving forward in the OT profession.
References
Ahn, M. Y., and Davis, H. (2023). Students’ sense of belonging and their socio-economic status in higher education: A quantitative approach. Teaching in Higher Education, 28(1), 136-149, https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2020.1778664 
Bamford, J. and Heugh, S. (2021). Enhancing student wellbeing and student belonging in university through a gamification approach to rewarding and recognizing extracurricular activities.  Wellbeing in Higher Education, SEDA Specials, 45
 
Baumeister, R. F., & Leary, M. R. (1995). The need to belong: desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation. Psychol Bull, 117(3):497-529
Bergmark, U.;Westman, S. (2018). Student participation within teacher education: Emphasising democratic values, engagement and learning for a future profession. High. Educ. Res., 37, 1352–1365
Gopalan, M., & Brady, S. T. (2020). College students’ sense of belonging: A national perspective. Educational Researcher49(2), 134-137
King, A. E., McQuarrie, F. A., & Brigham, S. M. (2021). Exploring the relationship between student success and participation in extracurricular activities. SCHOLE: A Journal of Leisure Studies and Recreation Education36(1-2), 42-58.
Knifsend, C. A. (2020). Intensity of activity involvement and psychosocial well-being among students.  Active Learning in Higher Education, 21(2), 116-127
O’Sullivan, K., Bird, N., Robson, J., & Winters, N. (2019). Academic identity, confidence and belonging: The role of contextualized admissions and foundation years in higher education.  British Educational Research Journal, 45(3), 554-575
Peacock, S., Cowan, J., Irvine, L., & Williams, J. (2020). An exploration into the importance of a sense of belonging for online learners. International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning21(2), 18-35
Pedler, M. L., Willis, R., & Nieuwoudt, J. E. (2022). A sense of belonging at university: Student retention, motivation and enjoyment. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 46(3), 397-408
Strayhorn T. L. (2019). College students’ sense of belonging: A key to educational success for all students (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Routledge
Winstone, N., Balloo, K., Gravett, K., Jacobs, D., & Keen, H. (2022).  Who stands to benefit?  Wellbeing, belonging and challenges to equity in engagement in extra-curricular activities at university.  Active Learning in Higher Education, 23(2), 81-96.
 

Use of ChatGPT and artificial intelligence (AI) in the Home and Community Health therapy setting

Amanda KUse of ChatGPT and artificial intelligence (AI) in the Home and Community Health therapy setting
Amanda Kotolski, Ph.D., OTR/L
Introduction
 
Artificial intelligence (AI) is quickly evolving and is now being used for everything from creating resumes or music lyrics to planning parties, writing code, and helping with travel plans. AI has also integrated itself into the medical and health-related fields, including occupational therapy practice. In occupational therapy (OT), we use assistive technology with prosthetics, splints, alternative and augmentative communication devices, and seating and mobility devices (Cortez, 2023). Therapists use virtual reality (VR) for stroke and traumatic brain injury (TBI) rehabilitation. The newest form of AI includes open AI platforms such as ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Microsoft Copilot. These are "computing systems that are able to engage in human-like processes such as learning, adapting, synthesizing, self-correction, and use of data for complex processing tasks."
 
ChatGPT: An Overview
 
ChatGPT stands for Chat Generative Pretrained Transformer. It is an interactive chatbot that answers questions in a human-like way. It was developed and launched by OpenAI, an artificial intelligence research organization, in late November 2022 (Gadkari, 2023). It became instantly popular, with 1 million users signing up within 5 days (Nguyen, 2022). When asking ChatGPT, "What is ChatGPT?" it responded, "I’m ChatGPT, an AI language model created by OpenAI. I’m here to help with answering questions, providing explanations, brainstorming ideas, writing content, coding, or assisting with various tasks." Regarding occupational therapy, this technology has benefits for both the client and therapist.
 
Benefits of AI in Occupational Therapy
 
Artificial intelligence, primarily open AI programs like ChatGPT, can assist therapists with symptom checking, education on diseases and conditions, medical documentation, clinical decision-making using data, and providing mental health support (Hinge Health, 2023). It assists clients by providing additional information regarding therapists’ recommendations, answering questions about specific diagnoses, symptoms, and treatment plans, providing instructions on how to perform exercises, offering motivational messages and encouragement to help stay on track between appointments, tracking progress by asking questions about symptoms, pain level, and range of motion, and sending reminders to complete exercises and schedule and attend appointments. With all technology, there are pros and cons to using it.
 
Pros and Cons of AI in Therapy
 
Pros include saving time analyzing research and information, efficiency, conversational nature without medical jargon, and potential to encourage clients too shy to seek professional help. However, open AI is not HIPAA compliant, lacks context, and answers may not be applicable to a client’s specific situation. It has vast amounts of information on topics but responses may not be as accurate or comprehensive as those provided by a medical professional. It often cannot cite sources of where information was gathered and will acknowledge its inability to do so, lacks a human touch and cannot provide hands-on experience for learning certain skills, and can provide biased information based on research, and is unable to think outside the box to tailor recommendations to personal situations (Gadkari, 2023; Hinge Health, 2023).
 
Practical Uses for Practitioners
 
For practitioners, ChatGPT has many practical uses. For therapists who do not have immediate colleagues, it can provide a discussion or conversation to brainstorm ideas (Schwartz, 2024). It can adapt and has multiple prompts to help rewrite and edit, generate medical documentation like long- and short-term goals, progress notes, treatment plans, treatment session notes, and discharge summaries, making the therapist more productive. After inputting data about interests and abilities, ChatGPT can suggest appropriate interventions, saving therapist time with treatment planning and increasing client motivation during treatment. While therapists already spend considerable time gathering and creating home exercise programs (HEPs), open AI can develop personalized HEPs instead of recycling programs or photocopying pre-printed worksheets (Cortez, 2023). ChatGPT can also assist with locating the latest information and research for therapists to provide best practice.
 
Impact on Higher Education
 
Open AI also affects higher education, including OT students and faculty. Research shows that ChatGPT use among students can enhance classroom performance through interactive help, self-directed learning, real-time feedback, accessibility, convenience, and flexible learning opportunities (Firat, 2023; Sallam, 2023). ChatGPT can also complete systematic reviews, create data and content, and provide language translation of non-English language-based research, assisting and promoting academic equity and diversity (Lund & Wang, 2023). Open AI does not have unlimited boundaries. Research has found that it often provides inaccurate information, citations, and references, even though it visually looks credible. Content is also limited to data used prior to 2021 due to its data being used in training and development of the coding (Alkaissi & McFarlane, 2023; Khan et al., 2023; Sallam, 2023).
 
Concerns and Challenges
 
Plagiarism, research fraud, academic dishonesty, and copyright issues are major concerns with open AI (Thacker, Mason, & Weir, 2024). Academic dishonesty is a major challenge in higher education. With open AI providing individualized feedback, students can have open AI draft papers and answer open-ended questions without the professor’s knowledge. At this time, plagiarism detectors are unable to determine if assignments were created using ChatGPT since there are no documented sources (Thacker, Mason, & Weir, 2024). If a student only uses ChatGPT for assignments, it will ultimately harm them when it comes to passing state licensure and NBCOT exams since course materials were never truly learned and applied. An apparent example of ChatGPT intelligence is provided by Kung et al. (2023), who found that ChatGPT performed at or near the passing threshold of 60%, approximately at the level of a first-year medical resident, on the United States Medical Licensing Exam. Clear guidelines and consequences of open AI use among higher education courses are critical to prevent academic dishonesty.
 
Conclusion
 
Therapists should embrace the new technology and adapt it to fit their professional needs while using their clinical decision-making and judgment. As Mesko and colleagues (2018) put it, "AI is not meant to replace medical professionals, but the ones using AI will probably replace the ones that don’t."
 
Please like our Facebook HCH SIS page: www.facebook.com/FOTAHomeandCommunityHealthSIS/
 
References
Alkaissi , H., & McFarlane, S. I. (2023). Artificial hallucinations in ChatGPT: Implications in 
scientific writing. Cureus, 15(2), 1–6. https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.35179
Firat, M. (2023, January 12). How Chat GPT can transform autodidactic experiences and open 
Gadkari, S. (July 2023). The advent of artificial intelligence: OT and ChatGPT. Retrieved from 
Hinge Health. (May 15, 2023). ChatGPT and Physical Therapy: What You Need to Know. 
Khan, R. A., Jawaid, M., Khan, A. R., & Sajjad, M. (2023). ChatGPT—Reshaping medical 
education and clinical management. Pakistan Journal of Medical Sciences, 39, 605–607.https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.39.2.7653
Kung, T. H., Cheatham, M., Medenilla, A., Sillos, C., De Leon, L., Elepaño, C., … Tseng, V. 
(2023). Performance of ChatGPT on USMLE: Potential for AI-assisted medical education using large language models. PLoS Digital Health, 2(2), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pdig.0000198
Lund, B. D., & Wang, T. (2023). Chatting about ChatGPT: How may AI and GPT impact 
academia and libraries? Library Hi Tech News, 40(3), 26–29. https://doi.org/10.1108/LHTN-01-2023-0009
Mesko, B., Hetenyi, G., & Gyorffy, Z. (2018). Will artificial intelligence solve the human 
resource crisis in healthcare? BMC Health Services Research, 18(1), 1–4. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-018-3359-4

Nguyen, B. (2022, Dec 5). A new AI chatbot is getting buzz for being able to have intelligent-sounding conversations, write music and even code. Business Insider.https://www.businessinsider.com/chatgpt-new-ai-chatbot-conversation-with-questions-answers-examples-2022-12

Sallam, M. (2023). ChatGPT utility in healthcare education, research, and practice: Systematic review on the promising perspectives and valid concerns. Healthcare 2023, 11, 1–20.http://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare11060887


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The Expanding Role of Occupational Therapy: Insights from the Doctoral Entry Level

pam kasyanThe Expanding Role of Occupational Therapy: Insights from the Doctoral Entry Level
By Pamela Kasyan-Howe, OTD, OTR/L
The entry-level Doctor of Occupational Therapy (OTD) degree marks a transformative advancement in OT education. It enables students to go beyond the basics of becoming an entry-level generalist, focused on reimbursable aspects of the profession, and develop into practitioners with advanced knowledge and skills in a specialized area of their own choosing.
This advanced degree has the potential to enhance the knowledge and skills of occupational therapists to handle the complexities of today's fast paced and changing healthcare system. Current healthcare trends include value-based care, using technology like telehealth, and focusing on personalized medicine. Shifting towards paying healthcare providers based on the quality of patient outcomes, rather than the volume of services, fits well with occupational therapy. 
Value based care is particularly effective for managing individuals with chronic illnesses, which are often more challenging, however, these are the same populations that OT is effective.  However, our traditional approaches focus on intervention at the individual level, and it's important to think about treating chronic illness at a broader levels—such as described in the occupational therapy practice framework (4th ed.) we can treat groups or entire communities, not just individuals (AOTA, 2020).  Exploring our roles at the population level, this is where students in the OTD program can really add value to the field.
Broadening Professional Scope and Enhancing Critical Thinking
Traditionally, occupational therapy has centered on helping individual patients with everyday activities, a focus largely dictated by insurance coverage. This narrow scope often limits therapists' ability to fully address the diverse challenges that individuals may face in their daily lives. The OTD entry point seeks to change this by encouraging students to pursue their unique interests within the field working with groups, populations and communities. This approach not only diversifies the areas of practice beyond those typically covered by insurance but also sets the stage for therapists to open private practices that cater to a broader range of needs.
In the long run, this shift offers OT practitioners the opportunity to provide services that more comprehensively improve public health and wellness, addressing needs that are currently underserved by the existing healthcare models.
Encouraging Innovation Through Capstone Projects
A key component of the OTD curriculum is the capstone, which includes both a hands-on experience (capstone experience) and an individual project (capstone project). This element of the program is designed to spark creativity and innovation, allowing students to explore specific areas of interest under the guidance of experienced professionals and experts.
These projects are tailored to the students' career aspirations and interests, fostering a highly engaging and personalized educational experience. The outcome has the potential to create a generation of occupational therapists who bring new ideas and approaches to solving health and wellness challenges, enhancing the field's overall creativity and problem-solving capacity inside and outside traditional reimbursement models. 
Developing Leadership and Expanding Professional Development
Leadership development is another critical aspect of the OTD program. Students are encouraged to delve into roles that involve advocacy, policy development, and community leadership. These experiences equip them with the skills necessary to effect positive changes in healthcare practices and policies.
The OTD also prepares therapists for roles beyond clinical practice, including in education, administration, and research. These roles are crucial for advancing the profession and ensuring occupational therapy has a prominent voice in the health sector.
Supporting Research and Building Evidence
The OTD entry point aligns with the AOTA’s research agenda to encourage studies that fill the existing knowledge gaps about the effectiveness of OT services for a broad scope of populations. This alignment encourages exploration and research to address the current gaps in knowledge about the effectiveness of OT services across a broad range of populations. Such focused efforts are crucial for enhancing the educational framework and deepening our understanding of the impact of the doctoral capstone to provide OT services. 
Although OT capstone projects do not have to be focused soley on research, the requirement to disseminate the outcomes of the OTD student project will contribute to the publication of services OT’s can provide in relation to student projects such as program development, education, leadership, or management.  Over time, dissemination of student capstone projects will build a repository that can be captured in a larger scale to provide evidence of position outcome from ot interventions. 
Conclusion
The OTD degree is reshaping the field of occupational therapy by expanding its scope is reality versus in theory, fostering innovation, and reinforcing the importance of leadership and advocacy. This advanced approach ensures that occupational therapists are better equipped to address the evolving needs of the population, ultimately leading to a more effective and responsive healthcare system. As research continues to highlight the value of the OTD pathway, it is clear that this level of training is crucial for the ongoing growth and success of the profession in improving quality of life for individuals and communities alike.
References
American Occupational Therapy Association. (2020). Occupational therapy practice framework: Domain and process (4th ed.). American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 74(Suppl. 2), 7412410010. https://doi.org/10.5014/ajot.2020.74S2001
American Occupational Therapy Association. (2018). Occupational therapy Education Research Agenda—Revised. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 72(Suppl. 2), 7212420070. https://doi.org/10.5014/ajot.2018.72S218

Embracing the growth mindset theory and social learning theory to positively impact motivation and engagement in online learners

     Online education refers to a learning process in which at least 80% of the course content is delivered via an online learning platform (Yeboah, Dogbey, & Smith, 2016). Hybrid education is a curriculum that has at least 50% of their delivery online. Increasingly, OT entry level programs are being delivered using hybrid curriculum. In addition, post-professional OT programs are primarily online in education delivery. According to the literature, enrollments in online education have grown rapidly in the past decade throughout postsecondary education (Jaggars, 2014). This growth offers learners opportunities, but also presents challenges for learners enrolled in online courses. For instance, despite the rapid growth in enrollment for online distance education courses, learner persistence and academic performance in online courses is often much lower than in traditional non-online courses (Croxton, 2014). Furthermore, according to Kauffman (2015), attrition rates remain high for online education courses as compared to traditional non-online distance education courses. Online education research studies have identified internal factors that lead to the underperformance for online learners (Croxton, 2014). These internal factors include lack of motivation, challenges with self-determination, and issues with not experiencing online engagement (Croxton, 2014). To this end, online college students who experience the least amount of motivation and engagement are said to be at a greater risk of dropping out (Pruett & Absher, 2015). It is of interest to identify ways the faculty can have an essential role in improving the motivation and engagement of online learners moving forward.

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Call to Action: Share Your Feedback with CMS

Call to Action: Share Your Feedback with CMS

OT practitioners, it’s not too late to make your voices heard by CMS!
 
As you may already be aware, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is seeking feedback on its Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) Proposed Rule for Calendar Year 2023. AOTA is in the process of finalizing a comment letter that will be submitted on behalf of organizational members, highlighting key areas of concern noted in the proposed rule and advocating for better access and reimbursement for occupational therapy services under Medicare Part B.
 
In this rule, CMS proposes a 4.4% decrease to the conversion factor and confirms continuation of the 15% payment cut for services delivered in whole or in part by an OTA. CMS proposes additional codes that may be delivered via telehealth after the COVID-19 public health emergency ends, but occupational therapy practitioners will only be able to access those codes for 151 days beyond the PHE since we are not considered permanent telehealth providers.
 
AOTA has been continually advocating on these issues and AOTA’s voice is strong, but we are stronger when the voices of our members are raised in support of the needed changes to keep our profession alive. 
 
We encourage members to share your personal story with CMS on how these cuts and policies are impacting your practice. This doesn’t have to be a formal comment letter—it can be a few sentences, a case example, or a paragraph on the struggles you face every day in delivering quality occupational therapy services. 
 
CMS needs to hear from you that continued cuts and lack of access to telehealth services after the public health emergency will have a direct impact on Medicare beneficiary access to timely, medically necessary occupational therapy services. 
 
Comments are due to CMS by September 6, 2022 at 11:59pm. We hope you’ll take a few moments to share your real-world experience with CMS.
 
Your advocacy efforts will make a difference!!!
Thank you for your membership!
FOTA
 

Medicare OTA payment differential

The Medicare OTA payment differential went into effect on January 1, 2022 and many occupational therapy practitioners still have questions regarding what the policy means for OTAs. 
 
Additionally, AOTA has resources that are immediately available. Please feel free to share this recording of the Special OTA Confab: Legislative and Regulatory Changes with your membership. The recording provides both the legislative background of the policy and a detailed discussion of when the modifier should be applied. An article and video can also be found on the AOTA website on how to apply the modifier and an easy to read handout is linked here.

FOTA21 Conference: Student Poster Submissions

FOTA21 Conference: Student Poster Submissions

Here are some tips to follow when completing your student poster submission:

  1. First and foremost, make sure you submit your poster under student and not professional. This will help to decrease any added stress closer to conference when you realize you may have been placed in the wrong group. The conference committee goes off what you submit and will place your poster in the group accordingly.

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FOTA HILL DAY 21' UPDATE

The Florida Occupational Therapy Association (FOTA) is proud to continue its service to members and consumers of OT during the 2021 Florida Legislative Session.  Thus far we have spoken to at least eight different legislators directly involved in the examination and vetting of our proposed updates to the Occupational Therapy Scope of Practice (Scope). Your FOTA representatives have also met with other relevant stakeholders such as The Florida Board of OT and the Florida Department of Health to solicit feedback and support of these essential updates to our Scope.

Now it’s your turn!

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FOCUS Quarterly Deadline Approaching

FOCUS quarterly
FOCUS QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER DEADLINE IS MARCH 15

FOTA Boosts Quarterly Publication 

In a persistent move towards meeting the needs of its membership and readers, FOCUS, the official publication of the Florida Occupational Therapy Association (FOTA) has been renamed The FOCUS Quarterly.  The Author’s Guidelines have been adapted to include formal review of submitted materials, and inclusion of a variety of opportunities for the novice and seasoned writers in the community of occupational therapy and collaborating partners.  

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MAKE YOUR COVID-19 COMMUNICATIONS TO STAFF MORE EFFECTIVE

MAKE YOUR COVID-19 COMMUNICATIONS TO STAFF MORE EFFECTIVE 

By: Michael Steinhauer OTR, MPH, FAOTA
FOTA SIS Administration & Management Chair (Modified from Matt Cornner, Managing Director, Talent Development Solutions, Advisory.com)

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The Role of Occupational Therapy: Providing Care in a Pandemic

From AOTA

The Role of Occupational Therapy: Providing Care in a Pandemic

This is an unprecedented time in health care that is evolving every day. Due to the outbreak of COVID-19, many organizations and occupational therapy practitioners are struggling with the question, “what is the appropriate role of occupational therapy during a pandemic?” Guidance from federal agencies is continually shared as the status of the pandemic within the United States is evolving on a daily basis. AOTA urges occupational therapy practitioners to continue to check guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) for the most up-to-date information. More

COVID-19 Update and Resources


 COVID-19 Update and Resources


March 22, 2020 

FOTA recognizes the impact of Covid-19 (coronavirus) on individuals, families, the nation, and our world as we all adapt to these uncertain times. OT Practitioners across the state of Florida have all been challenged to remain healthy and ensure safe practices to prevent further community spread. As many of you have worked in various sectors or continue to be on the front lines, the influx of executive orders at the local, state, and national level can cause confusion as to what steps to take next. Of the utmost importance is to ensure your safety and that of your family, while following orders to reduce and prevent community spread.


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Hill Day 2019

FOTA Hill Day in Tallahassee, FL,  January 22 at the Capitol Building, 2nd Floor Rotunda at 8am. We were joined by our lobbying firm, Corcoran & Johnston (C&J), to establish a presence with legislators in the rotunda, promote an awareness OT on the hill, as well as engage in sit-down meetings individually with specifically selected legislators at their offices as arranged C&J. Our objective was to raise awareness of the distinct value of OT in serving Floridians, and addressing specific issues of access to care, protection and promotion of OT practice across our state. We hope many OTs join us for Hill Day in the years to come. Part of your membership dues go to ensure that FOTA as skilled advisement from our lobbying firm on strategies to promote and protect OT in Florida.  FOTA relies on membership support to advocate successfully. More members are needed to increase our ability to influence change.
Thanks to OT Students from FAMU and OTA Students from Keiser U provided a positive presence and enthusiastic representation for the future of Occupational Therapy in Florida. Students and faculty attended some meeting with legislators, toured the House and Senate Chambers, and mingled with the leaders coming and going in the Rotunda. A student poster presenting research on the important issue pain management through OT was presented near our FOTA tables. Informational Brochures were available for all passers by.
 

The FOTA Governmental Affairs Co-Chairs, President, our Lobby Firm--Corcoran & Johnston, and Members had 16 different legislators and their staff over the course of a full-day schedule. We discussed issues important to the practice of OT and the service to our clients over several talking points including the Opioid Crisis, Pain Management, Mental Health in Schools, Medicaid, and Telehealth Practice. Our meeting included leaders on important health policy, and human services committees. We thank them for a receptive discussion about OT in FL. I have included some pics of my hand-held schedule and talking points from the day of meetings.

Hill Day Schedule  of Legislator Office Visits PDF

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Summer Updates

From the President: Summer 2018 -- From the FOCUS Newsletter

Hello and Happy Summer!

  

Pictured Left to Right are our voting board members and President-elect. Cathy Peirce, Ric Carrasco, Douglene Jackson, Tia Hughes, Kathy Frahm, Brent Cheyne, Elise Bloch, Debbie Misrahi, and Kelly Uanino.

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child mental health awareness day

Celebrating National Children's Mental Health Day: May 10th, 2018

 Join the FOTA leadership and membership in acknowledging National Children's Mental Health Day, May 10th, 2018. In service of our FOTA vision to be the respected authority on occupational therapy’s contribution to health and well-being in Florida, we have assembled a humble offering of clinician's resources and supportive information for OTs from across the state to use in service to children's mental health. Our Ad Hoc Committee on School Mental Health is developing further programming to offer to our members in the future, and we are developing policy statements to share with our advocacy team and our Florida legislators. 

FOTA believes in the potential for OT practitioners to impact child well being and provide new and innovative programs to meet the needs of our students in schools across Florida. We believe in the preventative model, nurturing social and emotional learning, and skills for emotional regulation, social skills, and collaborative learning -- all through occupation-based activities. Please take time today, and everyday to nurture the wellness of children in your life and in your practice. See our resources below --an assemblage that is still a work in development.  Take Care!

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Guest Blog: On Parkland --Mirtha Whaley, PhD, OTR/L

 

Guest Blog: On Parkland

 

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Blog One: From the President

A New FOTA President: Brent Cheyne, OTD, OTR/L 

Where are we headed? 

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