Associate of Applied Science | 88 credits minimum, including prerequisites

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Program Description
Occupational Therapy is a health profession that provides services to children and adults of all ages whose lives have been disrupted by physical injury or illness, developmental problems, the aging process and/or psychosocial dysfunction. Occupational Therapy Assistants use occupation and purposeful activity with clients/patients to help them reach their maximum level of independence.

Specific tasks may include daily living skill training, fabrication of adaptive equipment, leading individual and group treatment activities, adapting home environments, ADA architectural accessibility standards, enabling computer access for the disabled, cognitive retraining, improving development of gross/fine motor skills and activities that enhance quality of life. Graduates will receive an Associate of Applied Science degree after successful completion of academic and fieldwork experiences.

The Occupational Therapy Assistant program is a Community-Engaged Learning program. Community-Engaged Learning requirements are embedded in coursework. Students are required to spend 150 hours or more involved in Community-Engaged Learning, which may be outside of scheduled course times. Students may be required to attend conferences and out-of-state activities. The expenses of these requirements are additional student costs. Expenses can be offset by enrollment in AmeriCorps, if available. Students with a “B” average or higher will graduate as civically engaged scholars.

Career Opportunities
Work settings includes acute care hospitals, rehabilitation centers, psychiatric hospitals, community living facilities, home health agencies, community mental health centers, school systems, nursing homes, burn centers and rehabilitation clinics. Practice areas include: children and youth, health and wellness, mental health, productive aging, rehabilitation, disability and participation, work and industry and emerging practice areas. COTAs work under the supervision of licensed, occupational therapists.

Estimated Cost for Students
Tuition and student fees: http://www.slcc.edu/student/financial/tuition-fees.aspx
Course Fees: $337
Other: $1,186

Note: Fees vary based upon specific registration and are subject to changes.

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GENERAL ADMISSIONS REQUIREMENTS

• Be admitted to SLCC as a matriculated student. See http://www.slcc.edu/apply/index.aspx and declare your major as Pre-Medical and Health Sciences.
• High School Graduate or equivalent.
• For transfer credit, submit OFFICIAL, SEALED transcripts for ALL colleges and universities where prerequisite course work has been completed.
  Send to:
  SLCC Office of the Registrar and Academic Records
  4600 South Redwood Road
  P.O. Box 30808
  Salt Lake City, UT 84130-0808
• Also, a request to have an OFFICIAL evaluation of student’s transcript must be submitted to the SLCC Transfer Evaluation Office. The form is located at: http://www.slcc.edu/transcriptevaluation/. This process may take 4-6 weeks and must be completed before a student’s application will be considered.
• Complete SLCC placement exam, or submit current SAT/ACT test scores, if MATH and ENGL coursework has not been transferred to SLCC (required before you are able to register for classes that have MATH and ENGL courses as prerequisites). See: www.slcc.edu/testing.

OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY ASSISTANT PROGRAM SELECTIVE ADMISSONS APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS

This program is selective admission and has additional requirements to be accepted into the degree program. Specific requirements and process can be found here: http://www.slcc.edu/ota/admissions.aspx. Please contact the Health Sciences Admissions Office, healthsciencesadmissions@slcc.edu or 801-957-6253, for additional information.

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Specialized Accreditation
The program is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education (ACOTE). ACOTE; C/O Accreditation Department, American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA), 4720 Montgomery Lane, Suite 200, Bethesda, MD 20814-3449.

Graduates are eligible to take the National Board for Certification in Occupational Therapy (NBCOT) exam.

Licensure Information
Graduation from the Occupational Therapy Assistant program does not guarantee the ability to obtain a Utah state license to practice as an Occupational Therapy Assistant.  Licensure is the exclusive right and responsibility of each state.  In order to work as an Occupational Therapy Assistant, students must satisfy individual state requirements, independent of SLCC graduation requirements.  It is highly recommended that students consult in advance with the Utah Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing (DOPL), or similar agencies in other states, to find out more about eligibility for licensure.  DOPL can be reached at 801-530-6628 or at their website.

For students who plan to practice this profession in another state, here is one suggested website for researching state licensure requirements: License Finder sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor. If you have difficulty finding the licensure requirements for your state, please contact your academic advisor or SLCC’s state authorization coordinator for help.