|
tc -> Re: PT and OT difference (September 4, 2005 7:51:00 PM)
|
free,
I mainly try to explain it by difference in goals. This is very generalized, but OTs focus more on ADLs and psychosocial issues. I don't really know how it works with adults, but with pediatrics they will work on behavioral goals, attention to task, sensory goals, tactile, feeding issues and tend to do more of the fine motor activities such as grasp and handwriting whereas PTs focus more on gross motor type activities. Yes, many of these areas do fall under PTs scope of practice, but we cannot be experts at everything. If a child has mulitple issues, they should have treatment with the therapist who is most specialized in that area, meaning they may need multiple disciplines. There is also debate about working on swallowing and feeding between speech therapists and OTs, because speech therapists feel they have more specialized training in that area. Many types of therapies do overlap in areas.
Jon,
I do agree with what you have seen in terms of OTs limitations, but I've also seen it the other way around. In one peds facility it was basically- OTs work on the upper half of the body and PTs work on the lower.
ALso, in the field of early intervention in peds, OTs actually seem to have an advantage. At least in my city, they seem to have historically been the first ones providing things such as developmental evals and treatment, etc. and it is very hard to now convince the entire EI community that PTs are also trained in this area and it doesn't need to be an OT. However, the OTs are the ones running the show per se, by being in the upper level management and deciding which discipline to give the eval to. It is actually quite frustrating, because frequently the OTs will go beyond their scope of practice (in my opinion and in the eyes of many well-trained peds OTs) and work on walking as their primary focus of treatment and write gait goals.
Just another perspective.
tc
|
|
|
|