Emily Rothman in The Boston Globe “Health Care Providers Could Learn Much from OT”
(10/11/22, Boston Globe)
Occupational Therapy Professor and Department Chair Emily Rothman shared a letter with the Boston Globe in response to a recent study, “Doctors’ attitudes on disabilities questioned: In study, lack of accommodation and insensitivity.”
“More than 61 million adults and 3 million children in the United States live with a disability, including about 25 percent of adults in Massachusetts. That there are physicians who actively avoid providing health care to disabled people, and that more than one-third of physicians know little or nothing about their responsibilities under the Americans with Disabilities Act, is a failure that needs to be addressed...Occupational therapists and other allied health professionals in rehabilitation sciences are ready to help. Our doctoral-level occupational therapy students and faculty, for example, are prepared to educate and collaborate with physicians and other health care professionals about disability and evidence-based practices for serving people with disabilities. I hope that those who, like me, read Bartlett’s shocking article and thought, ‘We have to do better,’ will consider consulting with and learning from occupational therapists so that we can take action together.”