I am an Occupational Therapist with a private practice as an industrial injury consultant and disability case manager.
Occupational Therapy emphasizes balancing a variety of meaningful and purposeful activities along the spectrum of human functions to promote and enhance independent function and satisfaction with life.
More information about Occupational Therapy
As owner of my own company (Vital Link Consulting), I work in the specialized field of Disability Case Management, which focuses on return to work (RTW). Although I work closely with therapists in providing work conditioning/work hardening services, I myself do not provide clinical treatment. As a case manager and consultant, I coordinate services for people with disabilities seeking to return to work; assist employers with identifying, designing and/or implementing modifications to job tasks and work environments; and I provide training and consultation to corporations in injury prevention , cost-effective management of workers' compensation claims, and compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act ( ADA). For Human Service providers, I do a workshop on strategies for dealing with manipulative clients. On contract with a national seminar company, AE Roberts Educational Seminars, I have provided training to Human Resource professionals on the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), and the integration of company policies with FMLA, workers' compensation and the ADA.
I also have a special interest in Rural Rehabilitation
Favorite aspects of my job include:
Disadvantages of my job include:
Because it is so unusual for Occupational Therapists to be among the professionals more commonly known as either Rehabilitation Counselors or Case Managers, a small group of us "non-traditional" Occupational Therapists were nearly deprived of our career niches when a local administrative change took place. I formed a task force, and we lobbied the agency involved to make an exception for Occupational Therapists in the revised certification process. The experience was a crash course in political activism , not to mention a "wake up call" about the dangers of career complacency.
I am very interested in cross-cultural rehabilitation, and I'm one of the very few Disability Case Managers in Minnesota who speaks Spanish.
Spirituality and rehabilitation is of great interest to me, and I was featured in an article on the subject in the October 24, 1994 issue of ADVANCE for Occupational Therapists. As a result of the article, I have been quoted in a Masters' thesis on Spirituality in Occupational Therapy practice; and have acquired two new friends who have developed their interests beyond mine.
I maintain a variety of Professional Affiliations that help keep me connected both to Occupational Therapy, and to multi-disciplinary colleagues. A list of these affiliations is part of my Professional Profile
Through these affiliations, I have some made some interesting friends, many of whom have "adopted" me for meals, or even as a houseguest, when I've had business in their towns; and many of whom have become "email pals."
A Japanese Occupational Therapist asked me co-author an article with him on the subject of Occupational Therapists in Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs). Although the project has been put on hold at his end, I discovered, as a result of this collaboration, that EAP organizations in the U.S. have never considered having Occupational Therapists either as part of their staffs, or as a professional to whom to refer their clients. I hope to do some "consciousness-raising" among EAP professionals on how/why OTs should be considered as team members.
My Company, Vital Link Consulting
My Wearable Art Creations
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