#24: A Vision for the Future of OT with Arameh Anvarizadeh (CE Course)

[arameh (Arameh Anvarizadeh)]

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Learn more about our guest: Arameh Anvarizadeh, OTD, OTR/L, FAOTA

Read the article and discussion upon which this podcast is based.

Course Description

Released January 10, 2022 from Aurora, NE

What is the future of OT? How will your own OT career look over the next decade? How will our profession change and evolve?

The journal article we explore in this podcast is very concise, but it certainly packs a punch. It lays out a vision set by the American Occupational Therapy Association for where they would like to see the occupational therapy profession by 2025.

We’ll kick off the podcast by reviewing the article. Then, we’re thrilled to have Arameh Anvarizadeh, Vice President of the AOTA Board of Directors, join us for a discussion. She will share how the Vision has changed since its original publication. And, most importantly, we’ll discuss what this Vision means for practicing OTs—and how we can build our future with intention in this rapidly evolving world.

Primary Journal Article Explored

When you log in, be sure to check out the OT Potential Club’s written breakdown of the following research article. Then, share your questions and thoughts with fellow practitioners.

American Occupational Therapy Association. (2017). Vision 2025 . American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 71, 7103420010.

Supporting Research and Journal Articles

Additional papers on the future of OT

Pattison, M., Baptiste, S., & McKinstry, C. (2018). A vision splendid; visioning for the future of occupational therapy . Australian Occupational Therapy Journal, 65(3), 238-242. doi:10.1111/1440-1630.12490

Hammell, K. W. (2018). Building globally relevant occupational therapy from the strength of our diversity . World Federation of Occupational Therapists Bulletin, 75(1), 13-26. doi:10.1080/14473828.2018.1529480

Research specifically related to the effectiveness and need for OT

Gill Livingston, Andrew Sommerlad, Vasiliki Orgeta, Sergi G Costafreda, Jonathan Huntley, David Ames, Clive Ballard, Sube Banerjee, Alistair Burns, Jiska Cohen-Mansfield, Claudia Cooper, Nick Fox, Laura N Gitlin, Robert Howard, Helen C Kales, Eric B Larson, Karen Ritchie, Kenneth Rockwood, Elizabeth L Sampson, Quincy Samus, Lon S Schneider, Geir Selbæk, Linda Teri, Naaheed Mukadam, Dementia prevention, intervention, and care , The Lancet, Volume 390, Issue 10113, 2017, Pages 2673-2734, ISSN 0140-6736

Rogers, A. T., Bai, G., Lavin, R. A., &; Anderson, G. F. (2016). Higher Hospital spending on occupational therapy is associated with lower readmission rates . Medical Care Research and Review, 74(6), 668-686. doi:10.1177/1077558716666981

Learning Objectives

• You will be able to recognize some current gaps in our profession that the AOTA Vision pushes us to address.
• You will be able to describe why increasing occupational therapy’s diversity, equity and inclusion is critical in preparing us to meet the societal issues of the future.

Agenda

Intro (5 minutes)

Breakdown and analysis of journal article (5 minutes)

• How was the AOTA 2025 Vision drafted?
• The AOTA 2025 Vision
• The Guideposts of the Vision
• The UPDATED version of the Vision
• Takeaways for OT practitioners

Discussion on practical implications for OTs (with guest Arameh Anvarizadeh) (50 minutes)

• Can you tell us the story of how you became an OT—and then what made you want to become involved in the leadership of AOTA?
• Can you give us a little background on how the diversity, equity, and inclusion pillar was added?
• As you read through the core vision statement, what does it mean to you?
• How would you like to see busy, practicing OTs interacting with Vision 2025?
• When we look at the pillars, how do you personally process each one for yourself as an OT?
  • Effective
  • Leaders
  • Collaborative
  • Accessibility/Equity, Inclusion, Diversity
• Fast forward to 2025: what’s one or two things you’d like to see evolve or change for our next Vision?

Contact Hours

1 hour (0.1 AOTA CEUs)

Target Audience/Educational Level

Our target audience is occupational therapy practitioners who are looking to learn about the vision for the future of OT. The educational level is introductory.

Instructional Methods/Registration/Special Needs Requests/Cancellation Policy

This course is an independent/self-study course delivered via podcast on iTunes, Spotify and Google Play. Explore your listening options on the OT Potential Podcast page.

If you need accommodations to take this course, please contact us and we will address your needs on an individual basis.

If this course were to be cancelled, please see our cancellation policy on our terms page.

Course Completion Requirements

In order to receive a certificate for this course, you must first listen to the podcast in its entirety. Then, you will need to take the test (found at the top of this page) and earn 75% or higher. If you pass, a certificate will be automatically generated and sent to your email.

Financial and Non-financial Disclosures

It is the policy of OT Potential to disclose any financial and non-financial interest the provider or instructor may have in a product or service mentioned during an activity. This is to ensure that the audience is made aware of any bias of the speaker.

For this course neither speaker has any financial interest in the Vision of OT or assessments mentioned.

Speakers

Dr. Arameh Anvarizadeh, OTD, OTR/L, FAOTA:

Dr. Arameh Anvarizadeh, OTD, OTR/L, FAOTA is the Director of Admissions and Associate Professor of Clinical Occupational Therapy at the USC Mrs. T.H. Chan Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy. Dr. Anvarizadeh is responsible for developing the holistic admissions process and for maintaining effective admissions strategies and procedures within the division. She also oversees each academic program and makes certain the division is filled with high caliber diverse students.

Dr. Anvarizadeh is a Founding Member and Chair of the Coalition of Occupational Therapy Advocates for Diversity (COTAD), a non-profit organization striving to empower occupational therapy leaders to engage in practices that increase diversity, equity, inclusion, justice, anti-racism and anti-oppression for a more transformative occupational therapy profession. She is responsible for developing the COTAD toolkit, the Ignite Series, and COTAD Chapters. She tirelessly works to support and establish COTAD Chapters at academic programs across the country while empowering students to facilitate dialogue, awareness, and change related to issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion, anti-racism, and anti-oppression within the profession and beyond.

Dr. Anvarizadeh recently made history as the youngest and first African American/Iranian woman to become Vice President of the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA). She is also the youngest woman of color inducted into the prestigious Roster of Fellows (FAOTA). Besides being the current AOTA Vice President, Dr. Anvarizadeh previously held the leadership positions as the Credential Review and Accountability Committee (CRAC) Chair, as a Representative Assembly Leadership Committee (RALC) member, as a Governance Task Force member, and as the liaison between the Governance and DEI task forces. Dr. Anvarizadeh was also a member of the AOTA Special Task Force on Entry Level Education, and a crucial contributor to the professional dialogue on the entry level degree requirements.

She is a recent alumna of the 2020 cohort for the Executive Leadership Program for Multicultural Women. Within the Occupational Therapy Association of California (OTAC), is a recipient of OTAC’s Janice Matsutsuyu Outstanding Service Award and Vision Award. She previously held the position of Communications Chair for seven years. Dr. Anvarizadeh is an accomplished speaker who has lectured in numerous state and national conferences, as well as internationally at the World Federation of Occupational Therapists’ (WFOT) congress. Dr. Anvarizadeh is passionate about building healthy, diverse communities through inclusion, equity, empowerment, and advocacy. Using her skills as an occupational therapist and her passion for people, Dr. Anvarizadeh helps others discover, cultivate and spread their maximum potential.

Sarah Lyon, OTR/L:

Sarah’s passion is helping fellow OT practitioners translate evidence into daily practice. Sarah earned her BA in religion from St. Olaf College, then earned her master’s degree in occupational therapy from New York University in 2011. Since then, she’s worked in numerous facilities, including a critical access hospital, an acute trauma hospital, and a state inpatient psychiatric hospital.

In 2011, Sarah launched OT Potential because she realized we needed a reliable source of quality occupational therapy-related content and resources. She has also had the opportunity to create content for brands like WebPT, MedBridge, Saebo, and NeuroLutions.

She launched the OT Potential Club in 2019 to marry her love of simplifying complex topics with her desire to help therapists access the most important OT-related research released each year.

Sarah is a prairie girl at heart, which is why she returned to her hometown to raise her children in Aurora, Nebraska (home of the strobe light).

After earning your certificate, please consider taking a moment to answer the following three questions:

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Please share any other feedback below! Including, ideas for future programming, and most importantly, how you feel this podcast will impact your practice!

[BrandyA (Brandy Archie)]

This was a really great conversation to listen to. I really appreciate the work Arameh and others did to get the Vision 2025 updated to include diversity. Just like she mentioned, in the Vision Summit which I attended, while I personally wanted us to include diversity explicitly there was lots of talk of how it’s in there implicitly and word count was a big concern for a lot of attendees so it was originally left out. Also it’s important to note that the Summit didn’t end with even a rough draft of the vision, mostly themes and ideas and then McKinley and others compiled it into a few statements that were then sent around for comment. It’s so hard to come to a consensus on a few words representing a whole profession so I’m glad updates were made and voices heard!

The other thing I loved about the podcast is your recognition that what we really need is a charge with SMART goals! During the Summit we were told to think of the Vision as a charge, things we wanted the profession to aspire to, but without measurable goals it’s easy to not be able to measure progress! I wonder if AOTA will consider a Charge as an official companion to the next version of the Vision so we can stay true to our goal oriented nature as OTs! *hint hint @arameh *

[aharrell (Ashley Harrell)]

I loved how she Arameh mentioned sleep - OT’s should be more involved in sleep, but I am REALY struggling on finding alternate tools and strategies that are needed beyond the “basics” of bedtime routine, and white noise, and dark lights, and calming scents and calming routines. Some of my kiddos with cognitive / neuro difficulties really need different help! Any thoughts or resources for different strategies??

[Bonnie66 (Bonnie Fischer-Camara)]

Informative and motivating podcast!

[SarahLyon]

Hey @aharrell! I’ve written on sleep before, but I feel behind the times on it as well! I know there is this OT website that looks like it is somewhat kept up to date:

https://sleepot.org/

Also, this research article might be good to revisit:

Sleep in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Finally, if anyone sees this and has a connection to a guest that would be good for me to have on the podcast to talk about sleep, I would love to talk with them!!

[SarahLyon]

Yes! I love having a specific “charge” to accompany our next Vision! And, we are so lucky to have great AOTA board members like @arameh and @cristina4 I would honestly love to see more of their heart in our Vision- we elect our board members because we want their vision guiding the profession, so let’s save some money on outside consultants and bring more of the process in house!

[cristina4 (Cristina Reyes Smith)]

Thank you, Sarah!

Cristina

[sridevi (Sridevi Surampudi)]

Great Podcast, great topic, great speakers. Agree with all that was said in the discussion. Thanks to both. Hope to add my own journey on this path for OT to be more visible, impactful, collaborative and inclusive. It was a tough path for me, but I NEVER gave up. Because I believed so much in the power and impact of OT for healthier individuals, populations and communities. And it was with much joy I did it for about almost 30 years in many setups/ departments, many states in USA and 2 other countries. It’s a very beautiful and gratifying profession !!

[aharrell (Ashley Harrell)]

Sarah, thank you for those resources. I looked over them again including the one’s in the lit. review. but I am struggling with the families who either have tried all this and it still does not help or as soon as the family has one changed event it messes up the child’s sleep… On this child I will keep asking questions, but I feel I still need detailed strategies (possible neurological) beyond routines.
Also I see a child who is blind and the family struggles to get any pattern of sleep. When she wakes in the night she is calm and simply plays with her toys but her who day is altered with this sleep pattern, again this child has neurologic issues, so I would love to see more detailed strategies. Thanks!! Sorry to take up our “vision” for OT regarding sleep, but I do agree with all others that is sleep is not addressed, our occupation will suffer! thanks to all of you!!

[Pollywallace]

I enjoyed listening to the podcast- I was initially hesitant about the subject matter- even after reading the brief article because vision statements often feel nebulous and gasp- kind of vague-to me! I am much more of a bullet point kind of thinker. I do understand that there needs to be a guiding set of values, i.e. the pillars- that then guide the further refinement into actionable steps. I look forward to being a part of this community that can work to articulate what those action steps are! Thank you, Sarah, for bringing a leader in our field to ignite this discussion- I love the passion that Arameh has for our profession- she is igniting a spark for us all!

[sridevi (Sridevi Surampudi)]

Yes. I too felt the same way about Vision Statements etc. But now I know better. In reality, I think we had our own ‘vision’ and worked towards it. But it was not structured, nor geared to educate about the profession in a formal ‘big and global’ way. Yet, I think all of us went a long way to educate doctors, healthcare professions, patients/clients and families as much as we could. Very happy to hear from Arameh who seems almost as excited as I used to be talking about OT. And also all of you lovely, brilliant OTs !!
Thank you Sarah

[mia (Mia Tigue)]

I made a comment on the article prior to the podcast. Little did I know my concerns would be addressed on such a grand scale. This is my first podcast and not my last. I have to admit the vision (article) fell a little flat. Sort of like the Charlie Brown teacher. As a 30 year OT veteran I was most drawn to the diversity and inclusion statement. The podcast should be required listening. I am a fan. The comments were relevant, instructive, and a call to arms. In a word; OT. We ask our clients to look at their limits,
decide what they want to work on, and with our help establish the steps needed to meet the goals. So choose your passion again, that thing you love about OT and show the world.

[sonja (Sonja Kee)]

Wowww what a great help for us. Please give more help/info for Councelling of people who survived Covid, as I do have close family who are realy struggle to cope after recovery.
May you all have a Blessed 2022.

[AmyMahle]

I appreciate the attention to the topic of Vision 2025, which can be overlooked by many or perceived as “dry”. Arameh’s passion is palpable, as is Sarah’s! I am struck by Arameh’s words that the vision should be a “charge” to all OT practitioners. A charge gives direction and unites individuals towards a common purpose.

When I think of a vision, it’s something grand that we aspire to achieve in the future, and our mission is what we do on a daily basis. It does seem that our AOTA mission, vision, and pillars of the vision are all connected. As was pointed out on the podcast, I am wondering if there are measurable outcomes tied to the mission as we go about trying to reach our vision? I think we have room to add objectives to each pillar, as a way of knowing if we have met the vision, and what we need to include in the next iteration of the vision. Additionally, I believe that vision statements should be broad, as we cannot ever note every single group or category, and we want to be inclusive.

Finally, I would advocate for the term “occupational therapist” or “OTs” to be used only when referring to that specific role, as it is not inclusive of occupational therapy assistants. Perhaps we can all be mindful of using inclusive language, such as OT practitioner when referring to individuals who are part of our powerful profession.

[ann10 (Ann Henshaw)]

I am an "exprerienced (x30+ years!) OT who is now pursuing an OTD and I was TOTALLY ENERGIZED by this discussion - Sarah and Dr Anvarizadeh should shout this message from the rooftops! Loved the comment that “OT is the best profession” and agree we should be LEADING CHANGE EFFORTS!! Also loved the discussion of humility and the how as OTs we get a daily dose of the “beauty of being human”. So inspiring - I am ready for those action steps! THANK YOU!

[SarahLyon]

Oh wow!! I am so excited that you will be bringing 30+ years of experience into your OTD! We certainly need your on-the-ground experience as we continue to navigate changes! There is so much work to be done- it will take all of us!

[ruthlincoln]

Hello Ashley
I am very interested in the topic of sleep and use a number of strategies. it is my pleasure to share with you. Just today I was in a virtual ( online) Spiritual Jewish community that discussed Sleep Rituals such as prayers for ending the day, there is mindulfulness, self massage. . One can wear a mask, have a heavy blanket, keep the room temp cooler. Stay away from caffeine after 12:00. Don’t eat 2 hours before bedtime so the body isn’t working to digest. Make sure you just associate your bed with sleep, i.e don’t toss and turn in it. Have Sleepy time tea. Put a journal next to bed to write down last minute things you might be concerned you will forget. Lastly I use an earthing sheet which increases connectivity to the earths natural electric charge. This has been shown scientifically to improve blood flow, reduce stress increase general well being. For kiddos a bath and story. I hope some of these ideas inspire you.

[imran (Imran Ghaznawi)]

Fantastic discussion and an important reminder the role OT’s can play within populations and communities at micro, meso and macro scale. Had the pleasure of listening to Arameh as the keynote speaker at the CAOT conference 2021. Was a important reminder to not only look at the diversity of my clients, but also look to my colleagues and fellow OTs to learn from their diverse perspectives.

[gloria1 (Gloria Sims)]

Arameh enthusiasm and passion for the profession of OT translated notably throughout the podcast. The conversation and dedication to empower change is so crucial. Thank you for breaking down barriers. As OTs let us be effective, leaders, and collaboratively and culturally create a lasting legacy forever!