Each April the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) celebrated Occupational Therapy (OT) Month and the more than 230,000 Occupational Therapists, Occupational therapy assistants and students who work nationwide to create fuller lives for clients and their families.
Have you made a meaningful difference in your client’s life? We want to hear your story, share here!
How can you help celebrate and promote Occupational Therapy Month?
- Share information about occupational therapy on your social media sites.
- Sharing information about OT in a digital format is easy, and during OT Month you can use your social media accounts or even e-mail to share Tip Sheets, Fact Sheets, news articles, and other resources about the profession. Consider your audience (friends? other health care professionals? clients?) and choose information that directly applies to them.
- Use the Hashtag #OTMonth
- Instagram and Twitter users can use hashtags in their tweets by putting a pound sign in front of a keyword that will categorize the message and allow other users to click or search for posts and tweets by that keyword. During OT Month, when you share information about the profession, use the hashtag #OTMonth. The more people who use a hashtag, the better chance it has at becoming a “trending topic,” and gaining the interest of others. Help make #OTMonth a top hashtag by tweeting it throughout April.
- Take and share pictures of OT in action.
- It’s one thing to tell people about our profession, but imagine if you could show them occupational therapy in action. You don’t need a professional camera to take and share pictures on the Web, so break out your point and shoot (or even your phone) and start snapping photos of your work. If you are taking pictures of clients, be sure to get their consent in writing. Post your pictures on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Flickr, or any other photo sharing site. Remember to write captions for the photos that describe occupational therapy and what you are doing. If you post your photo on Instagram use the #OTMonth hashtag and tag AOTA (@AOTAinc) so we can see it.
- Create a video
- Video is a very powerful medium for promoting occupational therapy. This will be the most time intensive, but the results can be well worth the effort. Online videos are best when they are shorter than 5 minutes, have attention grabbing graphics and visuals, and tell a good story. Grab your smartphone or a video camera (many point and shoot cameras come with video capabilities) and start filming. Don’t forget that video editing software usually allows you to put photographs and text in your video in addition to the footage you film.
There is so much more we can do to recognize and celebrate occupational therapists. To learn how visit the American Occupational Therapy Association website.
