Advocacy: Rural Communities & Unhoused Families

Attending the 2022 Occupational Therapist Association of California (OTAC) conference in Santa Clara was incredibly empowering and educational. I got the opportunity to sit in on lecture sessions that discussed OT intervention strategies and advocacy awareness for different populations in need of OT services. I learned about the scarce resources OT professionals have that are needed to provide services for populations, such as unhoused families and families of rural communities. It became even more apparent why we need more members to become members of organizations such as OTAC and the American Occupational Therapists Association (AOTA). With more members we would have more advocates assigned to our profession to address all of these needs/concerns to legislation in the hopes of making real change!

While attending the conference I kept thinking about what I would complete my advocacy assignment on. Through my personal experience at the conference, I noticed a recurring theme, the importance of OT services for those in need. Many different booths, posters, and lectures addressed certain populations and how their company or services benefited this population and how we as future OTs or current OTs can join and help make change for these individuals. I encountered many school based/pediatric clinic practitioners, many rehabilitation services, and a lot of adaptive equipment as well to help different populations. However, the booth that caught my attention was the capital region ESD 113. They are an education program that supports a handful of rural districts in Washington and provides teachers, SLPs, OTs and many other professionals to aid in student success. Their mission on their website states, “To ensure excellent & equitable education for all students through service and collaboration” (Capital Region ESD 113, 2020). At first I was excited to speak with their representative because moving out of California, from a financial standpoint, is appealing to me. However, when talking with their representative I started thinking about how there must not be a wide variety of OT services for children in rural areas. Many schools (excluding California) receive their funding from enrollment, so if a school or county has a much lower student population, they’ll have significantly less funding (Chen, 2022). Washington state funds their school system through funds from the state, the federal government, local taxpayers, and other local fees (Snohomish School District, 2022). A smaller community might also mean less taxpayers, and less local tax money available to aid in school funds. This would mean these students lose out on the therapy services they need. In addition to rural communities, unhoused families are also very much in need and less able to obtain OT services. I had the privilege of listening to faculty members and students of San Jose State University present on the OT services they have been providing for families residing in the housing program near campus. Many low income families are unable to pay for or obtain health insurance that covers occupational therapy services so this program provides those services at no expense to the families. As OT practitioners we have a code of ethics to adhere to, one of which is justice. Is it just for families who can afford to pay, be the only ones able to receive OT? No persons should be excluded from receiving our services, regardless of socioeconomic status or location. This connects right back to our need for more members becoming a part of OTAC or AOTA. We need more advocating on behalf of OT practitioners to help provide us with the resources needed to fund programs such as these.

My experience at OTAC was greater than I had anticipated. I learned so much about what it means to be an OT. I also got to learn and hear about so many different areas of OT in need of practitioners to help service a multitude of populations. Over the past few years I have felt as though OT was the career best suited for me, and this conference made me feel even more so that I am where I am supposed to be. School based OT interests me very much, and being someone who lived in a rural area growing up and recently moved away from a different rural area, I am extremely grateful to have had this experience to learn more about how I can possibly help rural communities in the future. I am very interested in being a part of a program like the one provided by Capital Region ESD 113 and servicing rural communities that would not otherwise get OT. I would also very much like to gain hours and experience helping with the housing program SJSU is a part of and helping serve families that can not afford OT. It is my job as an OTS and future OT to uphold our standards and ethics. Advocating for these individuals and making sure they have equal access to services is a great way to start upholding these standards.


References
About our district / school funding. About Our District / School Funding. (n.d.).
Retrieved November 7, 2022, from https://www.sno.wednet.edu/schoolfunding
Chen, G. (2022, June 22). An overview of the funding of Public Schools. Public School
Review. Retrieved November 7, 2022, from https://www.publicschoolreview.com/blog/an-overview-of-the-funding-of-public-schools
Mission & Goals. Capital Region ESD 113. (2020, June 10). Retrieved November 7,
2022, from https://www.esd113.org/about-esd-113/overview/mission-goals/