Covid-19 pandemic: The All India Occupational Therapists’ Association’s response to the challenges

ABSTRACT

COVID-19 Pandemic has caused severe disruption in all spheres of life of common man across the globe. The All India Occupational Therapists’ Association has taken initiatives to combat the issues emerging in the times of pandemic by empowering the occupational therapy professionals across the country, which in turn may help the individuals to get back to the new normal life situations. The initiatives also focused on plans for occupational therapy schools to continue enriching students with the knowledge and partnering with other stakeholders to minimise the impact of this disease. The initiatives undertaken by AIOTA are well appreciated by the Ministry of Health, Government of India, World Federation of Occupational Therapists (WFOT), occupational therapy educational institutions and occupational therapy professionals across the country and also overseas.

KEYWORDS:

• AIOTA
• pandemic
• occupational therapy
• corona warriors
• e-learning
• exit strategies

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Ms. Kavita Narayan, FACHE, Director and Technical Advisor, HRH/Skills for Health National Human Resources for Health Cell, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, New Delhi for her all round support in inclusion of the profession of occupational therapy in Covid care. We sincerely appreciate the encouragement and motivation received for our ongoing efforts on AIOTA intervention in the Pandemic by WFOT officials Marilyn Pattison, Ritchard Ledgard and Kit Sinclair. We are thankful to AIOTA/ACOT and IJOT officials, State branches and the members for their valued contribution and timely guidance in continuing our efforts with utmost dedication. We are honoured to express our gratitude to AIOTA’s OT Corona Warriors for their selfless dedicated services to serve the humanity in such crisis situation.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).