Thank you very much.
Thank you, Mr. Chair and honourable members of this committee.
I am honoured today to speak on behalf of the Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists. I am Dr. Claudia von Zweck, and I am the executive director of the Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists.
I want to speak to you today about three primary areas in need of national coordination and commitment: modelling and measurement of health human resources, retention of occupational therapists, and workforce integration of internationally educated occupational therapists.
First is the modelling and measurement of health human resources. At this point in time, the measure of the needs for occupational therapists is flawed. Shortages in occupational therapy occur in Canada because the current models used to predict health human resource needs are insufficient. They insufficiently predict the demand for occupational therapy services. We are aware, for example, that in some areas of the country, the number of education seats for occupational therapy programs is not sufficient to meet the current workforce demands, because of inaccurate human resource projections.
To transform health care into a system that is efficient and effective, we have to look at what is possible. Occupational therapists aren't being used to their full scope of practice but could offer many solutions—more than what our current utilization allows. However, if occupational therapists were to work to their full scope of practice, current shortages would intensify. The current human resource planning measures do not and cannot predict the demand or the subsequent supply required to fill the demand.
For this reason, our first recommendation is to improve the health human resources modelling tools to create a more accurate measure of the supply and demand of professionals across jurisdictions. Those planning tools must consider the use of occupational therapists within their full scope of practice and with appropriate productivity expectations.
In the last few years, our organization has worked with the Canadian Physiotherapy Association and the Canadian Association of Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists in a project that was funded by Health Canada to develop an interprofessional case management tool. The utilization of these types of tools will help to provide a better understanding of appropriate productivity expectations for health professionals.
I would now like to address critical factors for retention. Similar to what we have heard from the physiotherapist community, occupational therapists are highly educated. We are experts in identifying meaningful interventions to support everything that people do during the course of everyday life, such as self care, play, work, study, and leisure.
However, one of the biggest challenges to the retention of OTs is the recognition of the importance of the profession in the delivery of health services and the acknowledgement of the profession in delivering comprehensive and quality care. Occupational therapists want to feel valued, and they want their profession to be recognized and understood by health professionals and the health system decision-makers.
Occupational therapists want their expertise to be recognized as a valuable part of the interdisciplinary team. They want occupational therapy to be recognized as an autonomous health profession that provides expertise in interventions to support daily living.
In addition, there are concerns within the profession related to health, well-being, and safety. Occupational therapists frequently have workplace injuries because they often work in isolated settings. They travel extensively to offer community-based services and encounter both threats and physical acts of violence. Community-based services and home care are increasingly recognized as a part of health care delivery, but the delivery of these services cannot come at the expense of the health and safety of professionals.
Therefore, our second recommendation focuses on improving work environments and the well-being of the professionals as a whole. We recommend that retention efforts focus on adoption of a national interdisciplinary health services model that promotes satisfaction of occupational therapists and other health providers through the recognition of the importance of their skills and expertise, while developing appropriate staffing plans based on the needs of clients, demands of the population, and safety and well-being of the OT professional.
Lastly, I'd like to address the issue of internationally educated health professionals.
Internationally educated occupational therapists play an important and growing role in meeting demands for occupational therapy in Canada. In order to meet staffing needs, many employers actively recruit occupational therapists who are educated outside the country.
With the support of the Government of Canada, CAOT has very actively worked on a number of initiatives with occupational therapy partners to address barriers that have been experienced by international graduates. We've had tremendous success with them. We recently partnered with McMaster University to develop a national curriculum to assist internationally educated occupational therapists to meet the entry-to-practice requirements of occupational therapy regulators.
However, despite the success of the curriculum in meeting the needs of internationally educated occupational therapists, we fear the program will end with the completion of our pilot funding in 2013. Therefore, we see opportunities for the federal government to continue to build on the successes we have been able to achieve to support successful and valued bridging programs that facilitate entry into the workforce.
Therefore, our last recommendation is for mechanisms for long-term funding for bridging programs that are aimed at assisting international graduates to successfully work as occupational therapists in Canada.
In closing, I'd like to thank you once again for your time and for your recognition of the important role occupational therapy plays in a comprehensive and coordinated health system.
Thank you.