April is Occupational Therapy Month - 100-Year Celebration

Posted on 4/3/2017 by Cornelia von Lersner Benson, O.T., CHT

Join NovaCare Rehabilitation, Select Physical Therapy and our team of dedicated occupational therapists as we celebrate Occupational Therapy Month (OTM)! OTM is hosted by the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) each April to recognize how occupational therapists and occupational therapy assistants help transform society by restoring and improving function in people's lives.

Occupational therapy is celebrating its anniversary! The National Society for the Promotion of Occupational Therapy (now AOTA) was established in 1917, marking 100 years of the profession and evidence-based practice. With more than 200,000 occupational therapists and occupational therapy assistants helping individuals across the lifespan live life to its fullest, this dedicated group of professionals focuses on treatment to help develop, recover and maintain the daily skills of patients.

Occupational therapists offer a unique approach to physical rehabilitation. The focus isn’t just someone’s motion or strength, but how it is used in their life, such as a healthy return to work, getting back to sports or hobbies or helping to braid a child’s hair before school. Occupational therapists also have specialty training in orthoses fabrication and emotional, thinking and reasoning factors that affect physical health and function. It is a service that, side-by-side with physical therapy, can offer a return to health and function in an all-inclusive and progressive way.

This service offering, however, all began for NovaCare Rehabilitation in 1990, prior to joining the Select Medical family, within our Southern New Jersey community when I was hired by our then company president to develop an occupational therapy program. I was hired as the first occupational therapist for the company, likely as an informal pilot study to determine a consumer’s benefit of receiving occupational therapy and its contribution as a service and unique offering for our organization. As we knew it would, occupational therapy was a hit! Occupational therapy allows patients to achieve independence and participate in tasks they want and need to accomplish through therapeutic interventions following trauma or disability. Our local success meant that the occupational therapy service offering quickly grew, adding additional staff members in New Jersey and then Philadelphia, Maryland and Minnesota.

Today, occupational therapy is a national service for NovaCare Rehabilitation, Select Physical Therapy and other brands within the Select Medical Outpatient Division family. We employ more than 480 occupational therapists across the country. We continue to treat patients on a daily basis as well as provide education and mentoring to support new occupational therapy graduates who desire to achieve his/her certification in hand therapy. We help to supervise all levels of occupational therapy students, ongoing development for staff and continued service expansion to meet the needs of our community at large.

At NovaCare Rehabilitation and Select Physical Therapy, our occupational therapists are everyday heroes and know that each patient is unique and requires an individualized approach to care. Our team finds the right solution for each patient to reach goals and return to function and the things they enjoy doing as soon as possible.

I am proud to work for a company that holds occupational therapy in such high regard and encourages and supports therapists in their growth, their unique contributions and their skills to improve the lives of our patients. This comes as a result of having a company creed that is dedicated to providing an exceptional patient experience in a compassionate environment. It all fits! Happy OTM, everyone!

Cornelia von Lersner Benson By: Cornelia von Lersner Benson, O.T., CHT. Cornelia serves as NovaCare Rehabilitation’s hand and occupational therapy director for the Southern New Jersey community. NovaCare in New Jersey proudly employs 46 occupational and hand therapists within 27 offices, including those who provide in-home care and services within physician offices.