Certified Occupational Therapist Assistants (COTA) work closely with Occupational Therapists to provide restorative, supportive, and preventive services to persons with physical injury or illness, psychosocial dysfunction or developmental or learning disabilities, in order to achieve the highest level of independent functioning in daily living skills. After evaluation by a registered Occupational Therapist, the Occupational Therapist Assistant will engage the client in purposeful activity in order to achieve goals. Treatment areas addressed by the COTA may include, developing self-care and daily living skills (i.e. feeding, dressing, and hygiene), increasing physical mobility and fine motor skills, and assisting the patient in learning to us prosthetic devices or adaptive equipment. This position requires interest in human behavior, in helping others, and in the physical sciences. COTA's should have a warm and friendly manner, be adaptable, creative and have good communication skills.

To become an occupational therapist assistant, one must graduate from an accredited or approved occupational therapy educational program and complete a national certification examination. One may choose a two-year associate degree or one-year certificate program. All educational programs are based in the biological and behavioral sciences and include a supervised clinical internship of several months. A growing number of educational programs offer students the opportunity to complete degree requirements while continuing full or part time employment.

• 2 year Associates Degree

Employment of occupation therapist professionals is expected to increase much faster than the average of all occupations through the year 2005 due to anticipated growth in demand for rehabilitation and long-term care services. Several factors are increasing the need for rehabilitative services. Medical advances are now making it possible for more patients with critical problems to survive. These patients, however, may need extensive therapy. Also, there is the anticipated demand generated by the baby-boom generation’s move into middle age, a period during which the incidence of heart attack and stroke increases. Additional services will also be demanded by the population 75 years of age and above, a rapidly growing age group that suffers from a very high incidence of disabling conditions and are more likely to need home health care, and the greater use of at-home followup care will encourage this growth. Finally, additional therapists will be needed to help prepare handicapped children to enter special education programs, as required by recent Federal legislation. Due to industry growth and more intensive care, hospitals will continue to employ the largest number of occupational therapist personnel. Hospitals will need therapists to staff their growing home health care and outpatient rehabilitiation programs. Employment of occupational therapist personnel in the home health field is expected to grow very fast.

Occupational therapists use specialized knowledge to help individuals perform daily living skills and achieve maximum independence. Other workers performing similar duties include orthotists, prothetists, physical therapists, chiropractors, speech pathologists and audiologists, rehabilitation counselors, recreational therapists, art therapists, music therapists, dance therapists, horticultural therapists, and manual arts therapists.

$34,340

• Kansas City Kansas Community College
• Penn Valley Community College
• St. Charles County Community College
• St. Louis Community College @ Meramec

• Aft Healthcare
• American Association Of Spinal Cord Injuries Nurses
• Missouri Occupational Therapy Association
• National Board For Certification In Ot, Inc.
• National Environmental Health Association
• National Rehabilitation Association
• National Rehabilitation Counseling Association