More occupational therapists needed

Two articles in the Feb. 5 Starphoenix highlighted the lack of health professionals in the area of youth mental health and seniors. The Saskatchewan government does not seem concerned. This is despite the accelerating changes in the healthcare field and the increased awareness of the needs of seniors and those suffering from mental illness.

Any province wanting to have a sufficient supply of health human resources needs to educate its own, particularly in those professions where there is high demand worldwide.

Yet here in Saskatchewan, occupational therapists, one of the core professionals used in mental health programs and seniors’ care, are still being trained out of province.

There are 14 educational programs in occupational therapy in Canada with Quebec and Ontario each having five such programs. In fact, the University of Saskatchewan is the only Canadian medical/doctoral university with no occupational therapy program in its School of Rehabilitation Sciences.

In a 2016 Saskatchewan labour market report on occupational therapy, it was recommended that Saskatchewan needed to expand its current 300 occupational therapists by at least a third if it was to match the average per capita access in Canada.

However, despite this report, the province continues to rely on recruitment from outside the province and the roughly 50 per cent return rate from the outof-province purchased seat program. This approach in recruitment barely covers attrition let alone providing sufficient occupational therapists to meet Saskatchewan’s needs.

Margaret Tompson, Saskatoon