Human Resources committee  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 Occupa

Health committee  I can add that although a number of occupational therapists in Canada may not specialize in the area of obesity management, the mandate of our profession is to help people to do the occupations that are important to them every day and allow them to engage in things that are going

Human Resources committee  I would say that we have seen a growth in the number of seats in occupational therapy in Canada. For example, in the province of Quebec two new programs have started up in the last two years; in Ontario a number of the programs have increased their seats. But there are still so

Human Resources committee  Not all occupational therapists would require three to five years, but as I mentioned before, there are, for some source countries, people who do have to do some upgrading in order to practise and they do struggle in order to meet entry-to-practice requirements. So during that pe

Human Resources committee  I would say there are pockets of shortages, certainly in rural areas, and there are shortages in particular provinces that don't have a good supply of seats for occupational therapy education programs, such as British Columbia, Saskatchewan, and Newfoundland.

Human Resources committee  Speaking to your first question with regard to HRSDC and CIC, we've worked very cooperatively with both of them. I feel that although they provide complementary services, our experience has always been very positive. In relation to your second question, I would very much agree

Human Resources committee  Thank you. I appreciate your recognition of the value of the profession, and I agree that there are shortages of occupational therapists. When we look at the distribution of occupational therapists in Canada, we see that about 95% of occupational therapists work in urban areas.

Human Resources committee  Good afternoon, members of the committee. My name is Claudia von Zweck and I am the executive director of the Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists. I represent over 12,000 occupational therapists from across Canada. I will share some thoughts with you today about ens

Veterans Affairs committee  Elizabeth already responded to say that occupational therapists, even with entry-level education, have good knowledge of how to approach issues related to mental health. I respect that people coming back from war are dealing with pretty specific issues, but I think there are oppo

Veterans Affairs committee  I would tend to agree with you. When people are making the transition from being active soldiers, they've created an identity for themselves as soldiers. It's what they've been trained to do, so to think about what happens next and to look at what's going to happen in their work

Veterans Affairs committee  In terms of being able to address the specific issues, I think we end up having to limit the types of services we provide to the most compelling issues. We're not able to take as holistic an approach as we would like to. Occupational therapists look at someone in a very holistic

Veterans Affairs committee  I think one of the reasons for that is the approach that's taken. Occupational therapists are often brought in as service providers to look at specific issues, but they're not looking at the overall issues. There may be a greater contribution that could be made either at an earli