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| EDITORIAL |
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| Year : 2019 | Volume
: 51
| Issue : 2 | Page : 43-44 |
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Accomplishments of the All India Occupational Therapists' Association and its Constituent Body the Academic Council of Occupational Therapy: Past versus recent scenario till 2019
Anil K Srivastava
Director and Consultant, Occupational Therapy and Rehabilitation, Rehabcare, Lucknow; Director, Deenbandhu Rehabilitation Center, Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, India; President, The All India Occupational Therapists' Association; Editor-in-Chief, The The Indian Journal of Occupational Therapy; Executive Chairman, The Academic Council of Occupational Therapy; WFOT Delegate, India
| Date of Web Publication | 28-May-2019 |
Correspondence Address:
Dr. Anil K Srivastava
93, Laxmanpuri, Faizabad Road, Lucknow - 226 016, Uttar Pradesh
India
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | 3 |
DOI: 10.4103/ijoth.ijoth_14_19
How to cite this article:
Srivastava AK. Accomplishments of the All India Occupational Therapists' Association and its Constituent Body the Academic Council of Occupational Therapy: Past versus recent scenario till 2019. Indian J Occup Ther 2019;51:43-4 |
How to cite this URL:
Srivastava AK. Accomplishments of the All India Occupational Therapists' Association and its Constituent Body the Academic Council of Occupational Therapy: Past versus recent scenario till 2019. Indian J Occup Ther [serial online] 2019 [cited 2023 Mar 28];51:43-4. Available from: http://www.ijotonweb.org/text.asp?2019/51/2/43/259175 |
| All India Occupational Therapists' Association | |  |
The day 20th April, 2018, will always be remembered by occupational therapy (OT) fraternity of India and members of the All India Occupational Therapists' Association (AIOTA) for the inauguration of the AIOTA's first national headquarter at Nerul, Navi Mumbai.[1] I congratulate the members on the first foundation day, i.e., 20th April, 2019, of functioning of the AIOTA's national headquarter. To commemorate this occasion, the Academic Council of Occupational Therapy (ACOT) had organized 2-day workshop on Introduction to Office Ergonomics-Module 1 at Lokmanya Tilak Municipal Medical College and General Hospital on 20th and 21st April, 2019. The first foundation day was celebrated during the inaugural function of this workshop in my presence as President AIOTA and Executive Chairman ACOT. During the latter half of the day, it was celebrated at the AIOTA national headquarter, in the gracious presence of the AIOTA Officials: me as President, AIOTA; Vice President AIOTA, Dr. Shashi Oberai; Honorary Secretary, Dr. Satish S. Maslekar; Treasurer, Dr. Pratibha M. Vaidya; Ex-Officio, Dr. Zarine D. Ferzandi; and Dean ACOT, Dr. Jyothika N. Bijlani.
| Academic Council of Occupational Therapy | | |
It is an established fact that the qualifications achieved with higher grades are often not enough for professional success. It may help in finding out a good employment. However, the success in clinical practice depends on continual learning, development of personality, dedicated hard work, and above all, the updated knowledge gained by evidence-based practice in health-related professions.
Considering these significant aspects of the profession of OT, the ACOT, a constituent academic body of the AIOTA, is striving hard since its inception in 1983, to update the occupational therapists of India with recent advancements in clinical practice in vivid areas of clinical practice for enhancing their professional competencies. ACOT was constituted to define, upgrade, and maintain the minimum standards of OT education in India, as required by the World Federation of Occupational Therapists and for academic uniformity in education in India. Recipients of the ACOT Fellow Award constitute the ACOT body. Fellow Award is conferred to the members of the AIOTA with a high academic profile. ACOT also issues the certificate of registration to practice OT and maintain a central register of graduate OTs in India.[1],[2]
The ACOT is committed to provide the leading edge knowledge and best practices to enhance the standards of education of tomorrow's leaders of OT, by means of short- and long-term educational programs in different clinical areas of practice. It performs these activities in close collaboration with OT institutions, the AIOTA Branches/Chapters, government and non-government organizations, and international organizations of repute. The AIOTA is now fully equipped with latest teaching technologies, to organize webinars by national and international faculties, for its prestigious Fellowship in Advanced OT and various seminars and workshops. [1,2]
The greatest achievement of the ACOT since its inception is 9-month Fellowship in Advanced OT, which began in 2017. The first fellowship was on Neuro-Developmental Disabilities (NDD) from September 2017 to June 2018, the second is ongoing on Neuro-Rehabilitation (NR) from September 2018 to June 2019. The third fellowship on Musculoskeletal Rehabilitation and Ergonomics (MSK-E)is scheduled from September 2019 onward. The fellowship programs with national and international resource faculties are well received by members of the AIOTA, which has resulted in great success. The ACOT has also collaborated with OTCourses.com, USA, to introduce online home-based continuing occupational therapy education (COTE) courses of high academic excellence on affordable prices, for members of the AIOTA on different areas of OT practice. The courses are available from January 2019 onward.
Jupiter Hospital, Thane, Maharashtra, in collaboration with the ACOT, is conducting a 12-week postgraduate (PG) certificate course in advanced OT in NR and MSK-R from 6th April, 2019 to 29th June, 2019, at Jupiter Hospital, Thane. Few of the successful COTE workshops in the past on the topics of today's relevance were on “Science and Ethics in Research Methodology and Art of Writing Research,” “OT Intervention in Visual Impairments,” “Robotics and Aquatic Therapy in Conjunction to OT” in neurological disorders, “Physical Agent Modalities as an Adjunct to OT,” “Ergonomics,” “Driver Rehabilitation,” and “Wheelchair Seating and Mobility.”
“Splinting in NR” and “Hands on Techniques for Motor Re-Education” are scheduled in June 2019 at GIPMER, New Delhi, with renowned resource faculties. The ACOT is also issuing certificates with credit units at par with international professional credits.
The Dean, ACOT, Dr. Jyothika N. Bijlani along with other OTs working in government and/or corporate hospitals, involved in the “assessment and intervention of children with specific learning disability (SLD) and other neurodevelopmental disorders and their disability certification” have jointly prepared a checklist for SLD and the standard method of “Comprehensive Assessment of SLD and other Neuro-Developmental Disorders” to fetch uniformity in OT assessment of such children throughout India. This committee will also train concerned OT professionals in the future.
Academic activities of the AIOTA have increased manifold since 2012 under the potential leadership added with dedicated efforts of the Dean, ACOT Dr. Jyothika N. Bijlani in close cooperation with the ACOT and the AIOTA Executive Committee, as well as the Editorial Board of the The Indian Journal of Occupational Therapy (IJOT). Before 2012, the focus primarily was on accreditation of OT colleges, pre-conference COTE programs and intermittently, academic workshops. Due to the sincere efforts of the ACOT, AIOTA branches and institutions, about 15 new OT programs imparting undergraduate (UG) and/or PG educations have come up in the past 3–4 years in different regions of India. It indeed is a welcome trend and reflects wide acceptability and dire need of this unique profession of health sciences within medical fraternity and in the community.
The ACOT is working with a vision to improve the quality and standards of the UG and PG educational programs in India, by regularly updating the minimum standards and designing syllabus to keep the educational institutions, up to date on its content to achieve 100% compliance with the objective of taking knowledge and practice skills of OT professional to next level. This would then raise the bar of skill development of OT professionals of national universities and will take it at par with international universities to facilitate collaborative partnerships.
| Award Contribution from Dr. Nirmala Venkateswaran | | |
Mr. Khushal D. Solanki and Dr. Usha, the close relatives, have requested the AIOTA to incept an award in the cherished memory of Late Dr. Nirmala Venkateswaran, a recipient of the AIOTA's Life Time Achievement Award in 2016, at Chennai, for her excellence and academic achievements in the profession. The proposal is accepted by the AIOTA and the award will be named as “Nirmala Venkateswaran Trophy for the Best Mini Movie” and will commence from OTICON' 2020.
| OTCON' 2020-Mumbai | | |
The 57th Annual National Conference of the AIOTA, i.e., OTICON' 2020, is being organized from 16th (Thursday) January, to 18th (Saturday) January, 2020, at Ravindra Natya Mandir Auditorium to commemorate the platinum jubilee of OT School and Center, Seth Gordhandas Sunderdas Medical College and King Edward VII Memorial Hospital, Parel, Mumbai, in collaboration with Mumbai Branch of the AIOTA, with support from OT colleges and institutions of Mumbai. The organizers have assured the AIOTA that they will take all measures to avoid inconvenience to delegates and students on their return on 19th (Sunday) January, 2020, due to Mumbai Marathon event. Organizing Committee under the leadership of Dr. Jayashri S. Kale is committed to provide the best academic platform for the prestigious annual academic event of the AIOTA.[2]
This issue of the IJOT in conformity of the IJOT policy carries abstracts of the oral papers and ePosters presented at OTICON' 2019 at Chandigarh, two original research papers titled “Occupational Therapy Workforce in India: A National Survey” and “Efficacy of Social Stories in Coping with Bullying among Children with Childhood Psychiatry Conditions: A Randomized Controlled Interventional Study,” and a book review on the book titled “Sleep Deprivation – An Occupational Therapist's Management.”
| References | | |
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| 2. | Srivastava AK. Editorial: OTICON' 2019 and the All India Occupational Therapists' Association's forthcoming academic activities in 2019–2020. Indian J Occup Ther 2019;51:1-2.  [Full text] |
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