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Michael Sy New Years Reflections and Resolutions 2023
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Just before the year ends, I just would like to share some reflections about the transitions and observations I have about the OT profession locally in the past years (2020-2022), here are my own and personal thoughts:

1. Many OTs have left (my sister included) and are leaving due to many reasons, some of them include the lack of opportunities to grow personally and professionally, insecure source of income, and lack of professional autonomy reinforced by the biomedicalization of occupational therapy among others. I have OTRP friends who even ventured in other means of livelihood just to make ends meet especially during the pandemic. Yes they can be called resilient but this is bothersome to the wellbeing of the OT professionals. The vicious cycle of OT diaspora is ON and there is no stopping.

2. The value of telehealth has been undermined, meaning it has largely been used as an option rather than an integrative part of therapy in a peri/post-pandemic landscape. I believe that technology must be exploited as much as we can and we need to be open to learning about its power to be adaptive professionals in the 21st century.

3. Occupational therapy remains to be a secondary health care service as it is not yet integrated within the public health system (hello UHC Law?). This means that OT services are still mostly out of pocket, making the services mostly available to Filipinos from the middle and upper class (hello Philhealth?). I am aware that many children and adults from low-income families cannot receive rehabilitation services not just because there is lack of funds, but because OT services are only available in urbanized, inaccessible hospitals with long wait lists. We need to find ways to make OT available in social and community service centers. It is also strange in this era how occupations and activities still require/recommend MD prescriptions and referrals when in fact OTs are the experts on these non-invasive, non-surgical, and non-pharmacological modes of interventions called “occupations”.

4. It is unfortunate that our services are largely not occupation-focused. While okay and helpful, we can see a lot of webinars and trainings focussed on certain techniques rather than on how we can promote participation, engagement, access to health, and occupations for people, communities and populations. Sadly, most of these popular techniques do not even mention “occupations”. The blind glorification of techniques will not help in claiming our professional autonomy in the future.

5. There is no fee regulation among occupational therapists. Each center/institution has its own policy depending on geographical area. While we are aware of the inflation (and the loss garnered due to the lockdowns), our fees are becoming more inaccessible to many Filipinos. I have also been told that some fresh graduates even ask for higher PFs than the seniors with a decade of experience for home health care. I was also told how “group therapies” are becoming a trend where OTs get higher pay by putting clients together without shared goals. Some clinic owners who are OTs even shared with me that some OTs are more money- than service-orientated. Without regulation and a system for payscales including incentives among occupational therapists in the Philippines will make it more difficult to keep them here to serve.

I have more thoughts but I leave it here for now. Now… what do we do? Honestly, I don’t know. Just hoping 2023 will be a better year for our profession and colleagues. Happy New Year!

2023 Goals for Occupational Therapists

My new years OT goals:

Embrace Occupational Science and a Bio-psycho-social lens in all settings

Encourage reflective practice

Envision a future

Create space for conversation outside of formal exclusive spaces

 

What can occupational science and OT in other nations teach us about interprofessional practice