Help Your Community, Become an OTA

OTA. These three letters are short for occupational therapy assistants – those healthcare support professionals whose expertise helps people live life to the fullest. When people like you become an OTA, they become big contributors to the health and wellness of their communities.

The Role of OTAs is to Offer Help and Hope

Rather than looking primarily at medical conditions, occupational therapy professionals like OTAs take a whole-person perspective on health. OT treatment therapies encompass mental, emotional, developmental, cognitive, sensory, and physical challenges.

Those who become an OTA are enthusiastic about helping others reach their maximum potential. Just a few examples:

• OTAs assist clients in community shelters, correctional facilities, group homes, workplaces, schools, and hospitals. OTAs also can coordinate assistance with other community-based initiatives.
• A client assigned to an inpatient psychiatric unit may be exhibiting mental challenges brought on by incorrect use of their medications. If so, an OTA can introduce a per-day pillbox and show a client how to set reminders using the alarm clock functions on their cell phone.
• OTAs know senior adults want to live as independently as they can for as long as they can. Occupational Therapy Assistants can instruct seniors to use bathroom grab bars, reach-extenders, and many other assistive tools and equipment.

Assistance to Individuals and Communities 

The pathway to a healthier community takes many forms. When someone becomes an OTA, their involvement in health and wellness activities can cover many different areas:

• Communicating knowledge of self-care practices
• Assessing client skills within a home environment
• Making access to educational opportunities easier
• Enabling clients to participate in community life
• Accelerating recovery from injury or illness
• Demonstrating how to adapt to life-altering changes and disorders.

Yes, You Can Become an OTA

If you care about people, why not become an OTA? OTAs have a friendly demeanor, they’re naturally compassionate, and they are excellent, one-to-one communicators. OTAs also have a great work ethic, are good with details, and can help move patients to different therapy positions when needed.

OTA employers also say a talent for being creative is highly beneficial. Often, a technique or tool that works for one client may not work as well for another. OTAs who have a creative side can easily adjust therapies to the abilities of the individual.

Now that you know the type of work an OTA does to help a community, here are some examples of programs in which OTAs participate :

• Community-based fall prevention programs for senior adults
• Workplace injury prevention or wellness programs
• Ergonomic assessments for workstations
• Parenting classes for teens and single-parent families
• Backpack safety for school-age children
• Self-management routines or helpful modifications for those with chronic diseases, like diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, and heart conditions
• Stress and anger management programs for children in juvenile detention programs
• Caregiver education to prevent injury and burnout.

The Growing Need for OTAs in Communities

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) in September 2020 puts the job growth for OTAs at 32% between 2019 and 2029. That’s a growth rate about three times the average of all occupations.

OTA career growth is due to several factors:

• The increasing number of those beyond age 55
• The desire of senior adults to be active and remain in their homes
• Healthcare support is one of the 10 fastest-growing occupations.
• Successful integration of OT in patient care scenarios. Early OT involvement helps children and young adults overcome developmental disorders. OT is also proving effective in lowering hospital re-admission rates and reducing admissions to assisted care facilities.

As a result of these factors, OTAs are in the list of “best health care support jobs” published yearly by US News and World Report.

Starting salaries for newly graduated OTAs average $45,000, and can go higher in high-need states. The average OTA wage range is from $53,762 and $65,564, according to Salary.com.

Become an OTA at Cleveland University-Kansas City (CUKC)

Cleveland University-Kansas City (CUKC) is a nonprofit, private, healthcare-focused university located in Overland Park, Kansas, a suburb of more than 190,000 people within the Kansas City metro area.

The accelerated (two-year) A.A.S. degree in Occupational Therapy Assistant at CUKC consists of 16 core courses and the 4-5 months of supervised fieldwork education. The guided fieldwork involves you in client scenarios that will allow you to meet employer expectations.

Think of the accelerated occupational therapy assistant degree plan at CUKC as a way to go from student to healthcare professional in as little as two years. Please take a look at our coursework plan here.

To connect with an advisor about the CUKC occupational therapy assistant degree, go here. To learn more about the OTA profession, get this free eBook: Your Complete Guide to an Occupational Therapy Assistant Career.