Fall Conference is Coming Soon! the Utah Health Policy Project, and how the Utah Legislature is interpreting

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1 Volume 14, Iss. 3 August 2012 Important Dates Sept. 18, 2012 Sept. 22 UOTA Annual Conference Fall Conference is Coming Soon! Newsletter Oct. 16, 2012 Nov. 20, 2012 Dec. 18, 2012 Jan. 15, 2013 by Pollie Price President It s almost time-excitement is in the air!! Fall conference is rapidly approaching!! Our conference committee has put together a wonderful program of speakers with very diverse topics. We also have a very special guest coming from Art Access, Cheryl Gillian, who will tell us how their programs support and develop artists who have disabilities. Kasey Mitchell, our Government Affairs Chair, will give a brief update on his involvement with the Utah Health Policy Project, and how the Utah Legislature is interpreting and enacting the Affordable Health Care Act (ACA) and the Medicaid Option. He will also discuss the sunset of our current practice act and our new practice act adoption process. As always, our poster sessions and special interest group meetings foster professional development and networking. Please join us for this enriching event!! Meeting with Recreation Therapy (RT) Inside this issue: Nominations and Bylaw Changes Continuing Education 2 AOTF Scholarship 3 Membership Contest 3 Annual Conference 4 2 By Kasey Mitchell Legislative Affairs Committee Chair During the last legislative session RT renewed their practice act. The legislative affairs committee found out about this bill the Friday before it went to committee. We were able to schedule a meeting with RT and the sponsor of the bill Senator Davis after the first committee meeting. We were assured during this meeting that the language of the new bill was not different from previous versions of the RT practice act. Based on these assurances the legislative committee thought that consensus had been reached and the issue was over. The legislative representative from AOTA informed us that the language that had been introduced with the new RT bill was very different than the previous versions. Members of the UOTA board challenged the bill, during the final committee meeting. As a means of compromise a meeting was set up between OT and RT to discuss how RT was going to interpret the new language in their practice act. The meeting was held several months from the original confrontation and started out a little awkward as everyone in attendance expected an argument. Pollie Price started the meeting with an apology for the tone of the previous encounter, explaining that we felt backed into a corner, that we were trying to figure out what was happening in a very short period of time and were receiving conflicting information. RT explained the purpose of the new language in their practice act was not intended to increase the scope of their practice but to clarify that each client seen by a RT need had to be evaluated by a licensed RT as in many facilities RT is often completed by someone without training as an RT. The changes in the scope of practice in terms of evaluation were only to be applied to recreational activities. The hope was to help RT to complete a more holistic evaluation and not to infringe on OT practice areas. The RT representatives encouraged OT to help them keep track of recreation therapists that were not in line with their practice act. (Continued on page 3)

2 UOTA Newsletter Page 2 UOTA Nominations and Bylaw Changes by Jeanette Koski, MS, OTR/L Nominations Committee UOTA. We appreciate all that you both have done for our profession and our organization. On behalf of the UOTA nominations committee I am pleased to report the following election results: Vice President: Trent Brown, MOT, OTR/L Treasurer: Darcy Crowford, MS, OTR/L Congratulations to our newest officers!! We are still looking for a person to fill the President-Elect position, please contact Jeanette Koski at or Jeanette.koski@hsc.utah.edu if you are interested or know someone who would be interested. Additionally, UOTA presented the following awards: The following By-law changes have been approved and will be implemented: Addition of an ad hoc Recognitions Committee to operate similar to Nominations Committee Addition to Bylaw Article III Members Section 1 Membership classes F Addition of Regional Representatives to the Bylaws, Article X, Changes to Bylaws Article X B-G: Updates to reflect current standards of operation Rename Website Committee to Website & Technology Committee UOTA Award of Excellence in Practice: Brooke Pohlman, MOT, OTR/L UOTA Bonnie Held Award of Service: Pollie Price, PhD, OTR/L To review the updated UOTA Bylaws and Policies document, visit the UOTA website: We want to express our gratitude for the example of excellence that you have both set for the members of Continuing Education Pain Management Presented by Donna Costa Part I October 13, :00-12:00 Part II November 12, :00-12: Wakara Way, University of Utah

3 (Continued from page 1) UOTA Membership Competition The tone of the meeting was positive and felt productive; the main concern that remains is how other organizations will interpret the changes in the RT practice act. Will an organization view these changes as a way to provide services typically covered by OT in a less expensive manner using RT? This concern will need to be carefully watched by OT practitioners in the months and year to come. Guidelines for our upcoming membership competition are as follows. The top 5-7 competitors who recruit the most UOTA members between now and September will receive awards. The awards and prizes, such as a UOTA membership, gasoline card, gift certificates to restaurants and department stores will be awarded at our UOTA Conference meeting in September. Qualified recruitments are: 1) practitioners/ students that have never joined UOTA before, 2) members you encourage to renew their membership or 3) renewing your own membership. Be sure to have everyone write your name in the space titled Recruited by: at the upper right corner of the membership form. Forms can be completed and payment made online or mailed with payment to: UOTA Membership PO Box Salt Lake City, UT For questions, please Lynn Hancuff at lhandcuff@yahoo.com or Ann Torina at jatorina@gmail.com Did you know that if you are a student currently enrolled in either a professional occupational therapy program or an occupational therapy assistant program, you might be eligible for one of 40+ scholarships? Offered through the AOTF (American Occupational Therapy Foundation) and its collaboration with state occupational therapy associations. The Utah Occupational Therapy Association sponsors a scholarship to be awarded to an occupational therapy professional level student and to an occupational therapy assistant student who are residents of Utah and are current members of the UOTA. For more information, including a scholarship application, visit the AOTF website at The deadline for scholarship online applications is November 15, Check it out today and apply (you just might be surprised which additional scholarships you qualify for).

4 As a proud part of HealthSouth, a national leader in rehabilitation services, HealthSouth Rehabilitation Hospital of Utah helps individuals regain functional independence to be at home with improved abilities and confidence. We offer superior outcomes for patients and exceptional careers for therapy professionals. Join our 44-bed post-acute care hospital, or our outpatient clinic, ranked for the 4th year in the Top 10% of the nation s inpatient rehab hospitals. Occupational Therapy positions available! These PRN positions are an integral part of the rehab team and offer flexible scheduling in an energetic environment. Caseloads average 6-8 patients/day. Leading-edge technologies Bioness, GameCycle, and more! Mentorship from experienced OTs in a close knit, collaborative environment Competitive salary Free continuing education To be part of our exciting environment, please call: Troy Jensen, Human Resources Director, at Learn more about HealthSouth of Utah at and about HealthSouth at

5 PO Box Salt Lake City, UT We re on the Web! UOTA FALL CONFERENCE Occupational Therapy: Linking education, research, and practice Saturday, September 22, 2012 Offering professional development credit through workshops, panels, papers & posters Salt Lake Community College, Jordan Campus, 3491 W 9000 S, West Jordan, Utah