Occupational Therapy Assistants Help Patients Return To Life

Occupational therapy assistants help patients with the physical and emotional aspects of recovery from injuries, surgery and strokes. They may also work in mental health and chemical dependency recovery programs, helping clients navigate everyday challenges.

By Nancy Crotti, Star Tribune Sales and Marketing

Last update: November 11, 2009 - 12:06 PM

Dawn Solem's patients tell her she'll be a good mom someday. An occupational therapy assistant (OTA) at the Good Samaritan Society's skilled nursing center in Stillwater, Solem is willing to explain or reconsider treatment tactics when patients get frustrated with their limitations.

A 2005 graduate of St. Catherine University's two-year OTA program (www.stkate.edu/academic/ota), Solem encourages patients to have their feelings, then shows how the therapy will help them do what they want, whether it's dressing or feeding themselves, cooking or gardening.

Improving Quality Of Life

Some patients have had strokes; others are recovering from other orthopedic surgery after falls. Still others have dementia and need help remembering how to stand at a sink to brush their teeth.

"These people are in a strange place and probably don't remember why they're there," Solem says. "Even with these small tasks, it makes it a better quality of life for them."

She and an occupational therapist work together on all these tasks, plus strengthening, wheelchair positioning and staff education.

Improving patients' quality of life and helping them engage in meaningful activity are the goals of occupational therapy, according to Marianne Christiansen, an associate professor and director of St. Catherine's OTA program. Students must be high school graduates or have their General Equivalency Diploma (GED). Prerequisites include psychology and anatomy/physiology, but students needn't take the ACT or SAT. Christiansen believes the competency-based curriculum helps students to succeed.

"They learn how to analyze activities so they can work with clients who have lost skills because of injury or illness. It helps them regain or redevelop skills to engage in the activities that are meaningful to them in life," she says.

Where The Work Is

Graduates may work in a variety of locations, including psychiatric and chemical-dependency recovery settings, where they help patients with social and work skills.

Most graduates are finding jobs within a few months, but some move into the dual-degree program to become occupational therapists. "We do try to create a ladder that is helpful to the students," Christiansen says.

Entry-level OTA salaries in the Twin Cities may range from low $30,000s to the high $40,000s, about two-thirds of an occupational therapist's salary.

"I didn't go into OTA for the money," Solem says. "I went into it to be with the patients."

"The money isn't huge," Christiansen agrees. "I say to them that they may not drive BMWs, but hopefully they will find some satisfaction in the work they do."

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