Occupational Therapy on College Campuses: Facilitating Student Success Through Occupation

Purpose: To explore how occupational therapy services fit into a supported education model on college campuses.

Rationale: College students present with many strengths and challenges in college settings. There are limited services for young adults to succeed in college and students with various diagnoses face challenges in the areas of time management, organization, academic skills, and in social areas of college (Orentlicher, & Olson, 2010; Rogers, Kash-MacDonald, Bruker, & Maru, 2010). Higher education is a role emerging area for occupational therapists, and there are some pioneering occupational therapists who have discovered multiple ways to provide services to students who are challenged by aspects of college life.

Objectives:

Describe the history and current practice of supported education and its fit within the domain of OT.Describe a variety of OT supported education programmesIdentify aspects of the supported education programmes that participants could apply to their college or practice setting

Format: This workshop will begin by describing the history and models of supported education. The presenters will define six examples of OT programmes on college campuses.

Finally, the presenters will encourage participants to share ideas and identify aspects of the various programs that they could apply to their college or practice setting.