Eli's Rehab Report

If you're a student going for your occupational therapy degree, you'll have new standards to follow, thanks to the Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education.

After three years of work, the ACOTE has adopted new accreditation standards for professional master's degree occupational therapy programs and occupational therapy assistant programs. The new standards are available on the ACOTE accreditation section of the AOTA Web site www.aota.org, said the American Occupational Therapy Association in a press release.

"The 2006 standards reflect the perspectives of varied constituent groups, including a new emphasis on specifying intervention content and competencies that are drawn from the practice community, a strengthened emphasis on accountability for outcomes that is guided by trends in higher education accreditation and a more clearly differentiated educational foundation for occupational therapy assistants and occupational therapists with a master's degree," said Jane Olson, PhD, OTR, FAOTA, current ACOTE chairwoman and former chairwoman of the ACOTE Educational Standards Review Committee.

"These standards, along with the upcoming OTD standards, will provide a solid foundation for educating professionals to achieve AOTA's centennial vision," she added. For now, professional master's degree educational programs will be required to comply with the new 2006 standards by Jan. 1, 2008.