Doing What We Love
They say that if you love what you do, you never work a day in your life. But, what happens when — because of mental health, injury, or disability — you’re unable to do that work? You call an occupational therapist.
Next week, the Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy (OS&OT) will mark its 100th anniversary with a celebratory breakfast. This follows a celebration in the fall that marked the 100th anniversary of the Department of Physical Therapy. Joined with Speech-Language Pathology, and the additional research-focused graduate studies in the Rehabilitation Sciences Institute, I take pride in seeing our rehabilitation sector generate the skilled professionals and scholarship that enables people to embrace their passions.
This is an important moment for OS&OT. It is marking its centennial, but it is also beginning an exciting new chapter as it expands its MScOT program to the University of Toronto Mississauga (UTM). This will allow us to welcome 40 additional students and deepen our relationship with UTM and the Peel region. It also allows us to respond to the growing need for OTs in Ontario generally, and in the western GTA specifically. While the population is expected to increase by 35.1 per cent in the GTA by 2041, Peel region is projected to grow by 47.4 per cent. Currently, Ontario has one of the lowest number of OTs per capita. In 2015, there were 59 OTs per 100,000 people in Quebec; in Ontario, there were 37 OTs per 100,00 people.
This expansion also provides an inflection point for the program; an opportunity to more fully embrace community-based practice, which is where the discipline began. This recognizes the important role OTs can play as part of family care teams, and also how OTs can be an important bridge between primary and hospital-based care. For example, a recent paper published in Medical Care Research and Review found that occupational therapy is the only spending category where additional spending has a statistically significant association with lower 30-day readmission rates for heart failure, pneumonia, and acute myocardial infarction. And, in being situated at the Mississauga Academy of Medicine (MAM), new collaborations or synergies may emerge.
An expansion like this is no small undertaking, and I am very thankful for the enthusiasm and commitment with which the Department is embracing this opportunity. I especially appreciate Professor Susan Rappolt’s leadership, as Chair of the Department. But, I also want to acknowledge the tremendous work and support provided by Dr. Allan Kaplan, our Vice Dean, Graduate and Academic Affairs, and Dr. Alison Freeland, Associate Dean, Medical Education (Regional), Professor Ulli Krull, Vice-President, U of T, and Principal of UTM, and Tamara Breukelman, MAM’s Operations Manager.
When I welcome the first expanded OS&OT cohort this fall, I’ll encourage them to do what they love, so that they can ensure others can do likewise.
Trevor Young
Dean, Faculty of Medicine
Vice Provost, Relations with Health Care Institutions
