Online Newsletters

The newsletter of the American Occupational Therapy Association is an important tool for occupational therapy practitioners and students alike. This newsletter is titled “AOTA One Minute Update”, and provides the reader with recent happenings in the field of occupational therapy. This site provides information on legislative issues surrounding the profession, and offers information on contact information for those readers who wish to contribute to facilitate change. Additionally, this site offers information on changes in practice standards, professionals in the news, and courses that are being offered through this site. This newsletter also offers information on sale items that are offered through the association. The importance of this newsletter is that it keeps the practitioner up to date on current legal issues surrounding the profession. On more than one occasion I have been moved to respond to legal changes that were proposed to take place. For students, this facilitates actions which could safeguard the future of the profession. This newsletter helps to create professional attitudes and expectations prior to graduation from an occupational therapy program. In my opinion, this newsletter is worth maintaining a subscription to. It is styled for ease of the reader. Each topic has a bold title and is separated by lines. This makes it easy to skim to information which might be of interest to the specific reader. Additionally, archived issues are available on the AOTA website. The only issue with this newsletter is that you must be a member of AOTA to review it. This is balanced by the expectations that professionals belong to their national association. During membership subscription, members are asked if they would like to receive the newsletter. This can also be signed up for online at:

www.aota.org

MOTA

The newsletter of the Maryland Occupational Therapy Association is also an important tool for occupational therapy practitioners and students alike. This newsletter focuses on the state of Maryland in its information and is generally more specific when defining statewide changes. This newsletter is offered quarterly, and is not sent through email, but is available online for all to enjoy. This newsletter provides the reader with recent happenings in the association, discusses state conferences, and other conferences in which the state association sponsors. This newsletter also provides information on legislation on the state level and keeps the reader up to date on current happenings. It often contains information on candidates for state association offices and provides a chance for others to voice their opinions. Each issue of the newsletter offers a main topic story with a focus on current events, trends or issues within the state practice of occupational therapy. News clips are provided with information regarding surrounding area legal changes, websites to watch, and updates on evidence briefs for various practice areas with the profession. Lastly, the MOTA organizes several social gatherings and legislative dinners each year and provides information on participation in these activities. This newsletter is often filled with OT “fluff” and not all of the information is pertinent to every practitioner on issue by issue basis; however it is felt that the few minutes it takes to look online for the newsletter, and review the information is well worth it. Each issue has at least one item that is useful to everyone, and this keeps the reader up to date on local issues. This can be viewed at: