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Associate Professor Christine Wright, Chair
Assistant Professor Andrea Brown, OTA Program Director
Assistant Professors: Sanders

Occupational Therapy practitioners assist individuals, groups, and populations in achieving health and wellness through participation in meaningful and purposeful daily life tasks and activities known as occupations. Occupational Therapy practitioners address this through evaluation, intervention, and targeting of projected client outcomes.

The Occupational Therapy practitioner includes both the occupational therapist and/or the occupational therapy assistant. The occupational therapy assistant partners with the occupational therapist to carry out the evaluation and intervention processes. Occupational therapy assistants are skilled in intervention techniques that allow clients across the lifespan to achieve health and wellness through participation in daily life activities.

The Occupational Therapy Assistant Program (OTA) is part of the Occupational Therapy Department which houses both the OTA and Occupational Therapy Doctoral Program. The OTA program is a one-year program that runs from August to August annually and consists of didactic and fieldwork courses. The application cycle for prospective students also occurs annually. Applications must be received by March 1 in order to be considered for acceptance. Detailed information regarding the application process for the OTA program can be found on the program’s website at: https://www.astate.edu/info/academics/degrees/degree-details.dot?mid=6cadb9c2-da01-4235-a4e6-94f1a05905fe.

Mission

The Occupational Therapy Assistant Program is committed to the development of exceptionally safe, ethical, and culturally aware practitioners who focus on the unique needs of the client, communities, and populations and who aspire to be life-long learners, advocates, and leaders in the field of occupational therapy within the state of Arkansas and the lower Mississippi Delta region.

The occupational therapy assistant program will fulfill the mission by:

1. Providing high quality didactic and practical educational experiences that transmit occupation and evidence-based knowledge to program graduates.
2. Creating and sustaining high expectations for professional, cultural, and ethical growth and development in OTA students.
3. Providing fieldwork experiences in both traditional and emerging practice areas to produce graduates capable of meeting society’s needs.
4. Strengthening occupational therapy services in the region through strong community partnerships.
5. Modeling advocacy and leadership qualities through active participation in department, college, university, and professional service and scholarship.

Program Level Outcomes

Upon completion of the Occupational Therapy Assistant program at Arkansas State University, graduates will:

1. Use professional reasoning to name and frame clinical situations in order to provide client-centered and occupation-based interventions.
2. Understand and implement evidence-based practice across a variety of clinical settings and populations.
3. Provide intervention that is ethically, socially, economically, politically, culturally, and environmentally relevant to individuals and populations in the lower Mississippi Delta region.
4. Understand the roles and responsibilities of OTA and OT practitioners to create collaborative partnerships and appropriate supervision in all settings and populations.
5. Effectively identify factors of influence to health and wellness and implement intervention plans to address health at the individual, group, and population level.
6. Possess the professional identity, knowledge, and skills necessary to effectively advocate for the client and profession and engage in leadership roles and responsibilities.

Accreditation

Both the Occupational Therapy Doctorate (OTD) and the Occupational Therapy Assistant (OTA) programs are accredited by the Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education (ACOTE) of the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA). The OTA program received initial accreditation
in 2016 and will undergo reaccreditation in the 2020-2021 academic year.

Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education
c/o Accreditation Department American Occupational Therapy Association
6116 Executive Boulevard, Suite 200,
North Bethesda, MD 20852-4929.
(301) 652-AOTA
http://www.acoteonline.org

Background Check

As of January, 2018, NBCOT requires all exam candidates to pass a background check in order to be eligible to sit for the certification exam. This background check is in addition to the background check required by Arkansas law for applicants to the OTA Program. Prospective applicants should be aware that a felony conviction may impact their ability to become certified and licensed as an occupational therapy assistant.

Programs

• Occupational Therapy Assistant, AAS

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