Occupational therapy celebrates rich history

April is Occupational Therapy Month and the 65th anniversary of the addition of occupational therapy to the Army Medical Specialist Corps. The anniversary marks the service of military medicine occupational therapists who have deployed in every major U.S. conflict since World War I.

Occupational therapists and occupational assistants help people across the lifespan participate in the things they want and need to do through the therapeutic use of everyday activities (occupations). OT interventions include helping children with disabilities to participate fully in school and social situations, helping people recovering from injury to regain skills, and providing supports for older adults experiencing physical and cognitive changes.

Occupational therapy services may include evaluations of the client’s home and other environments (e.g., workplace, school, hospital), recommendations for adaptive equipment and training in its use, and guidance and education for family members and caregivers. OT practitioners have a holistic perspective in which the focus is on adapting the environment to fit the person, and the person is an integral part of the therapy team.

At Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, occupational therapists provide a wide range of services to U.S. and coalition forces, family members, and other government employees. Often, LRMC is one of the first places to treat injured service members from downrange.

Occupational therapists provide therapy for individuals who have been admitted to the hospital, inpatient behavioral health groups, outpatient orthopedic rehabilitation and outpatient traumatic brain injury services. Therapists see individuals who are referred through other health care providers. Individuals are thoroughly evaluated to determine the need for therapeutic intervention. They have a long and storied past in providing these services.

The civilian forbearers of Army OT performed mental health rehabilitation starting in the first part of the 19th century, and the profession began to include physical rehabilitation in the 20th century. To assist with the hundreds of thousands of wounded troops during World War I, the Surgeon General’s Office created the Division of Special Hospitals and Physical Reconstruction on Aug. 22, 1917.

In March 1918, OT was categorized as “all therapeutic work except physical therapy.” Occupational therapists, a workforce that was comprised of civilian women, were known as reconstruction aides. Most OT aides worked on hospital wards and “high qualities of character and skill in handicrafts were the early (skill) requirements.”

On July 31, 1918, the War Department approved a plan for “reconstruction of the disabled men of the Army.” OT aides began training “the sick and wounded in the arts and handicrafts and in academic and commercial studies” and also began “to apply massage, thermo-, electro- and local hydrotherapy.” There was a significant drawdown of the OT workforce after the war and a transition to the civilian sector.
World War II brought about an increased need for and a further advancement of the profession of OT. At the start of World War II, there were only eight occupational therapists and four assistants working in Army hospitals. By the end of the war on Aug. 15, 1945, there were 899 OTs and trainees in 76 hospitals. In December 1944, the “Technical Manual on Occupational Therapy” was published by the War Department, documenting and helping to standardize current OT practices.

On April 16, 1947, Public Law 36 was approved by the 80th Congress, establishing the Women’s Medical Specialist Corps. This law provided OTs with regular commission status. One of the requirements at the time was: “Applicant must be in an unmarried status with no dependents under the age of 14 years.” During the course of World War II, male corpsmen were assigned to OT to help limit personnel shortages and provide protection from aggressive patients. This most likely provided an opportunity for inclusion of assistants and aides from the civilian sector as well.

The need for this profession’s connection with the Army continued to expand in future conflicts. As the U.S. involvement in the Korean War grew, there was yet another increase in need for therapists to rehabilitate wounded Soldiers. In 1955, with the inclusion of commissioned male occupational therapists in the Army, Public Law 84-294 changed the title of the Women’s Medical Specialist Corps to the Army Medical Specialist Corps.

Army occupational therapists have deployed in every major U.S. conflict in the subsequent 50 years, including the Vietnam War, Operation Desert Shield, Operation Desert Storm, Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. They have also served in many humanitarian missions, establishing themselves as force multipliers in the rehabilitation and injury prevention arena.
For more information, LRMC OT will have an open house from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Thursday in Bldg. 3770, Wing 12A, in the main hospital.

(Courtesy of LRMC Public Affairs)