Occupational Therapy- The Job of Many Jobs

One of the major pros for the field of occupational therapy is just how many settings and specialties an occupational therapist can practice in. I was surprised to hear when meeting faculty on the first day of graduate school the number of different areas my faculty had practiced in over the course of their career. This is exciting news as I like the idea of being able to work in many different fields. During class, while hearing about different areas of practice I feel like a kid in a candy store. At the mention of each new area I think to myself "maybe I'll do that!" The first career goal of mine is to work in the sociological area of practice. While I would like to begin in either a day treatment center for pediatrics or in the school system a huge dream of mine is to start a camp for children (and possibly adults) with disabilities. I have a great deal of experience working with camps like this as I did an undergraduate internship with a foundation that puts on camps. It wasn't until a few months ago that I learned about a camp in eastern TN, called Camp Cliffview, that is run entirely by occupational therapists. The occupational therapists at a clinic in Johnson City began raising money from various community businesses and looking for volunteers in OT students at Milligan to fund and staff this camp. The campers are all clients at their clinic in Johnson City. I volunteered here in September and realized that I too could have a camp like this as part of my career as an occupational therapist. A camp like this would either be a private for profit agency so long as the funds can be raised in the community, which would be the goal. The camp I interned with was a not for profit, as they charged a small fee to the staff and campers while the rest was covered by fundraising.
Another area of practice that I find intriguing is the psychological area. I worked in addiction medicine at an inpatient rehabilitation facility in Knoxville during my time off before graduate school. I was working as a recreation therapist at the time, but I realized the interventions I was leading were very similar that of occupational therapy. Here I was working with addiction medicine, mental health, trauma, and even the homeless population. This facility covers many aspects of administration classifications, as part of the facility for the homeless is government funded, while the other part of the facility is insurance or out-of-pocket pay. One day during this time period I received a phone call from a woman I used to babysit for who sits on a board that gives out grants to start-ups in Knoxville. She called me because an occupational therapist came with a proposal asking for funding to provide occupational therapy interventions to a children's addiction rehab and she wanted to hear my take on whether they should provide that grant. This would be an area/place I would love to work in because I could work with pediatrics, mental health, and addiction medicine.