What is COT?

An occupational Therapist (OT) is a unique healthcare provider who skillfully assists individuals in overcoming challenges that hinder their ability to carry out daily functions, such as self-care, productivity, and leisure activities. Utilizing advanced skills in clinical reasoning, critical thinking, and thorough observation, OTs develop tailored therapeutic goals for each individual performance challenge. Their aim is to help individuals regain independence and improve adaptive skills to return to a productive life. 

Explaining the role of a Community Occupational Therapist (COT) is multifaceted and impactful. Words are countless when defining or explaining what a COT is capable of doing!

COTs provide assistance to clients in various settings including homes, clinics, work environments, community centers, hospitals, and more, catering to individuals of all ages. Community OT demands a comprehensive understanding of an individual's health challenges, requiring updated assessment skills, efficient observational approaches, and strong critical thinking. 

COTs play a crucial role in supporting individuals involved in motor vehicle accidents and those facing mental or physical health challenges, and brain injuries. In these scenarios, COTs facilitate hospital discharges, provide necessary home modifications, help manage pain, and offer ongoing support to achieve functional goals through customized treatment plans. 

Additionally, COTs are instrumental in aiding individuals with work-related injuries, guiding them to develop, maintain, or regain the skills required for daily living and working. This involves comprehensive assessments, tailored intervention plans, job site visits, personalized return-to-work strategies, and provision of essential equipment in home, work, and community environments. 

Lastly advocacy and implementing client-centred approaches holds a distinctive role in COT practice, requiring practitioners to employ functional approaches to address health concerns in the community, including liaising with fee payers (mainly insurance companies) and collaborating with other healthcare providers, such as family doctors, physiotherapists, and kinesiologists, etc.