Helping to bring occupational therapy to all on World OT Day 2024

On this year’s World Occupational Therapy day we are proud to showcase Physiopedia’s contribution to bringing the value of occupational therapy to the wider global rehabilitation community through our expert and talented occupational therapists.

World Occupational Therapy Day is an annual celebration that recognises the important role occupational therapists play in helping individuals regain their independence and improve their quality of life. This year’s theme for the day “Occupational Therapy for All” reflects the important role of the profession in facilitating the ability of individuals, communities and populations to participate in the activities that they want, need or are expected to do in their daily lives.

“Occupational therapy is a client-centred health profession concerned with promoting health and wellbeing through occupation.” World Federation of Occupational Therapy (WFOT)

There are multiple barriers to facilitating participation in occupations, one of which is an under-powered occupational therapy workforce, particularly in low and middle income countries (LMICs). A cornerstone of an effective workforce is having appropriate training, education and opportunities for high quality continuing professional development to support knowledge and skills. This in turn can help to strengthen rehabilitation in health systems and support therapists – and their patients – all over the world.

To this end, through the USAID-funded ReLAB-HS activity, Physiopedia (Wikipedia for rehabilitation professionals) and our related Physiopedia Plus (Plus – online learning for rehabilitation professionals) subscription site have developed our offerings to be both more accessible to LMICs and more inclusive to other rehabilitation professions, such as occupational therapy. Over the past few years we’ve been supporting occupational therapists in their online learning activities, inspiring occupational therapists in Uganda with in-person clinical skills training on spinal cord injury and creating evidence-based resources for occupational therapists on Physiopedia. These activities were possible thanks to our talented occupational therapy team developing online courses and resources to specifically respond to the learning needs of occupational therapists in LMICs. 

This course has increased my confidence in participating in a multidisciplinary team, and I have gained new knowledge about caring for patients with different levels of SCI – OT from Uganda on completion of The Role of Occupational Therapy in Acute Spinal Cord Injury Plus online course

On World Occupational Therapy Day this year, we want to take this opportunity to highlight the outstanding work of our talented occupational therapy team at Physiopedia and to showcase some of the valuable resources available on Physiopedia and Plus – all helping to bring the value of occupational therapy to the wider global rehabilitation community.

Learn with Physiopedia

As a free, open-access website, Physiopedia provides a wealth of information for all rehabilitation professionals, wherever they are in the world. So whether you want to better understand the role of occupational therapists in a rehabilitation team or need detailed evidence-based information on the value of occupational therapy in settings ranging from home health to paediatrics, from mental health to acute spinal cord injury then Physiopedia has you covered.

Learn with Plus

In addition to the open access Physiopedia, Plus is a subscription-based platform that provides access to a wealth of rehabilitation and occupational therapy resources for online learning and professional development. Due to our unique sustainability model, organisations in high-income countries pay for access to the platform and also fund organisations in low income countries to learn for free. Hundreds of Plus courses are translated into multiple languages and the Plus app makes learning accessible in remote communities where internet insufficiency creates access challenges.

“[Plus] is the answer to my prayers“ – Zara Harris, OT and Vice president of the Haiti Rehabilitation Foundation.  

Plus courses for occupational therapists, including those presented by our occupational therapy instructors, include topics spanning research, documentation, clinical educator training, the ICF,  sensory integration and considerations for feeding, mental health considerations in cerebral palsy, self-care assistive technology, spinal cord injury, management of distal radius fractures and upper limb trauma. And there are more coming all the time! 

Meet our team

Over the past few years as part of our move to be more inclusive to all rehabilitation professionals and through our work with ReLAB-HS we have sought out expert occupational therapists to join our team. We now have 11 incredible and talented occupational therapists on our team, including the Vice President of the Council of Occupational Therapists in European countries and an American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) International Service Award winner. 

Our team of occupational therapists span a huge range of specialist areas, skills and parts of the world and you can meet them here:

• Naomi Algeo
• Angela Cecil
• Nino Chumburidze
• Teona Darchia
• Pradeep Gunarathne
• Ana Gurgenidze
• Wendy Oelofse
• Angela Patterson
• Yara Peterko
• Kate Thorn
• Neelum Zehra

We are grateful for the contributions of all our occupational therapy team and resources on Physiopedia Plus and Physiopedia. They make a valuable contribution to the field of occupational therapy and help to improve the lives of people around the world. Happy World Occupational Therapy Day!