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Web Resources for Occupational Therapy

The following web sites have been carefully selected for reliability and timeliness. If you are using information from the web, it is your responsibility to make sure that it is from authoritative resources. A Quick Guide to Evaluating Internet Information is available.

Allied Health

CAAHEP: Commisssion on Accreditation of Allied Health Education
http://www.caahep.org
Provides information on accreditation, accredited programs, careers in allied health, certification, and standards and guidelines.

Cultural Diversity

Cross-cultural, transcultural, cultural competence – resources & links
http://medicine.ucsf.edu/resources/guidelines/culture.html
A metasite by the U.C.-San Francisco School of Medicine.

Curriculum Guide on Cultural Competence. George Washington University
http://www.gwu.edu/~iscopes/LearningMods_Culture.htm
Text of an educational curriculum.

Cross Cultural Health Care Program. Seattle, WA
http://www.xculture.org/resource/order/index.cfm
A Seattle-based program focusing on cultural and linguistic aspects of health care provision. The "books and resources" section provides a bibliography of books; information and links to search the CCHCP Library, to curricular materials, and more.

National Center for Cultural Competence.
http://www.georgetown.edu/research/gucdc/nccc/nccc7.html.
Promoting Cultural Diversity and Cultural Competency has an online “Self-Assessment Checklist for Personnel Providing Services and Supports to Children with Special Health Needs and their Families, and provides useful Web links on cultural competence, as well as the searchable “Cultural and Linguistic Competence Resource Database” of resource materials.

National Alliance for Hispanic Health
http://www.hispanichealth.org
A network of hispanic health and human services providers, whose website provides a wealth of resources and links, including the Hispanic Health Needs Assessment and documents such as the State of Hispanic Girls (http://www.hispanichealth.org/pdf/stateofgirls.pdf).

Resources for Cross Cultural Health Care
http://www.diversityrx.org/HTML/WERCCH.htm
"A national network of individuals and organizations in ethnic communities and health care organized to offer technical assistance and information on linguistic and cultural competence in health care." Website has the searchable DiversityRx database of abstracts of model programs on cultural competence; text of a report, "Multicultural Health Best Practices Overview"; and useful links.

Spanish Language Health Education Materials
http://www.ethnomed.org/ethnomed/cultures/hispanic/patient_ed.html#spanish_health

Gerontology

Florida Coalition for Optimal Mental Health and Aging
http://fcomha.org/index.php
The Coalition "provides opportunities for individuals, professionals, consumers, researchers, government and private organizations to work together towards improving the availability and quality of mental health and substance abuse services for older Floridians and their families through training, education, research, and increased public awareness."

Geronet at UCLA
http://www.geronet.med.ucla.edu/index.htm
LINKS to research and other resources on aging and gerontology.

International Society for Aging and Physical Activity
http://www.isapa.org/guidelines/index.cfm
An international non-profit society for research and practice concerning aging and physical activity. Site includes text of the International Curriculum Guidelines for Preparing Physical Activity Instructors of Older Adults.

Merck Manual of Geriatrics
http://www.merck.com/mrkshared/mmg/home.jsp
Free access to this standard handbook for health and clinical issues related to the elderly. The source is searchable via free-text searching; usually the Index is the better starting point for a search.

Merck Manual of Health & Aging
http://www.merck.com/pubs/mmanual_ha/contents.html
Provides "information on aging and the care of older people in words understandable by the lay public." The source is arranged by broad topic, i.e. Fundamentals of Aging: Caring for Self and Others; Medical Conditions; Social, Legal, and Ethical Issues. Inlcudes a useful index. Appendices provide generic and trade names for common durgs, and a comprehensive list of resources for information and help on specific issues.

National Aging Information Center of the U.S. Administration on Aging
http://www.aoa.dhhs.gov/NAIC/Notes/default.htm
Aging Internet Information Notes cover more than 60 aging topics. Each “Note” begins with a brief description of the subject area, followed by web pages with hyperlinks organized by public interest subtopic or intended audience. An effort is made to include sites with information useful to consumers, policy planners, program development staff, state service providers, professionals working with older adults, students, teachers and researchers, media and business.

National Center on Elder Abuse
http://www.elderabusecenter.org/default.cfm?p=aboutncea.cfm
"A national resource for elder rights, law enforcement and legal professionals, public policy leaders, researchers, and the public. The Center’s mission is to promote understanding, knowledge sharing, and action on elder abuse, neglect, and exploitation."

Mental Health

Evidence-based Mental Health. Implementation Research: A Synthesis of the Literature
http://nirn.fmhi.usf.edu/resources/publications/Monograph/
Full text of a 120 page monograph published by the National Implementation Reearch Network. The book serves as a guide to planning and implementing evidence based mental health programs.

Evidence-based Practices: An Implementation Guide for Community based Substance Abuse Treatment Agencies. 2003
http://nirn.fmhi.usf.edu/resources/detail.cfm?resourceID=98
A 34 page handbook in full-text discussing issues related to implementing evidence based programs and practices. Published by the Iowa Practice Improvement Collaborative.

MedWeb
http://www.medweb.emory.edu/MedWeb/
MedWeb is a keyword searchable meta site of biomedical and health related web sites maintained by the Robert W. Woodruff Health Sciences Center Library at Emory University. MedWeb's primary audience is the academic and research community.

Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General. 1999.
http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/mentalhealth/home.html
A report of almost 500 pages that asserts that mental illness is a critical public health problem that must be addressed by the Nation.

National Alliance for the Mentally Ill
http://www.nami.org/
NAMI is a nonprofit, grassroots, self-help, support and advocacy organization of consumers, families, and friends of people with severe mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia, major depression, bipolar disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and anxiety disorders. Its foci are support, education, advocacy, and research.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's (SAMHSA) National Mental Health Information Center.
http://mentalhealth.samhsa.gov/
The National Mental Health Information Center was developed for users of mental health services and their families, the general public, policy makers, providers, and the media. It provides information about mental health via a toll-free telephone number (800-789-2647), this web site, and more than 600 publications.

Occupational Therapy Profession

Licensure; state regulations, laws and rules:

Florida Board of Occupational Therapy Practice
http://www.doh.state.fl.us/mqa/occupational/ot_home.html

Occcupational therapy profession updates (Florida)
http://www.doh.state.fl.us/mqa/occupational/ot_updates.html

National Board for Certification in Occupational Therapy.
http://www.nbcot.org/
Provides links to state regulations on OT and licensure, the national certification exam (including practice tests), and professional news and events. New eligibility requirements for OTR certification.

Online Discussion Lists:

Listservs page
http://www.geocities.com/nqiya/Listservs.html
Describes listservs: how to use them, how to identify them; and provides links to directories of listservs.

Rehab discussion lists
http://cirrie.buffalo.edu/lists.html
A list, maintained by the Center for International Rehabilitation Research Information and Exchange, of various discussion lists about rehabilitation. These listservs provide online discussions with those interested in disability and rehab research.

Professional Organizations:

American Occupational Therapy Association
http://www.aota.org/
Website of the American professional organization for this discipline. Includes text of the OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY CODE OF ETHICS - 2000.

American Therapeutic Recreation Association
http://www.atra-tr.org/atra.htm
The American Therapeutic Recreation Association (ATRA) is the largest, national membership organization representing the interests and need of recreational therapists.

British Association of Occupational Therapists
http://www.baot.co.uk/

Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists
http://www.caot.ca/

Florida Occupational Therapy Association
http://www.flota.org/

American Academy of Neurology
http://www.aan.com/
SEARCH and LINKS to Neurology resources membership… Some of the resources are restricted to members only.

American Academy of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation
http://www.aapmr.org/
Organization of physicians who specialize in the field of physical medicine and rehabilitation. SEARCH & LINKS information on rehabilitation modalities.

American College of Sports Medicine
http://www.acsm.org/
LINKS to ACSM information, membership, continuing education, publications…

American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine
http://www.acrm.org/acrminfo.htm
LINKS to accreditation, continuing education, conferences, membership, publications…

Arthritis Foundation
http://www.arthritis.org/
SEARCH & LINKS to an extensive list of arthritis information, publications, support groups, research resources and links to related organizations.

Governmental organizations:

Florida Department of Health.
http://www.doh.state.fl.us
Provides information about Florida county health departments; licensure requirements for health professions in Florida; immunization requirements for Florida school children; children's medical services; LINKS and/or addresses to county health departments and to health statistics for Florida.

Lee County (Florida) Health Department
http://www.lee-county.com/healthdept/
Includes complete text of the Comprehensive Assessment for Tracking Community Health (CATCH) Report 2000 for Lee County, which shows the health status of the county population; health news updates and bulletins; Health Department services; and health care articles of interest to SW Florida.

Muscular Dystrophy Association
http://www.mdausa.org/
SEARCH & LINKS to Muscular Dystrophy-related information.

National Resource Center for Traumatic Brain Injury
http://www.neuro.pmr.vcu.edu/
SEARCH index & LINKS to information, FAQ, directory of experts.

Pi Theta Epsilon Occupational Therapy Honor Society
http://users.aol.com/susanOT/
LINKS to eligibility requirements, membership, newsletter, events.

"FAQ/Finding Information About Psychological Tests. " American Psychological Association.
http://www.apa.org/science/faq-findtests.html
APA's help guide to locating and finding information on published and unpublished psychological tests and measures.

Health and Quality of Life Outcomes (journal)
http://www.hqlo.com/home/
"An Open Access, peer-reviewed, online journal offering high quality articles, rapid publication and wide diffusion in the public domain. Its purpose is "to promote the dissemination of knowledge on the Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQOL) assessment within the scientific community. " 2003 - present

International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health Checklist. World Health Organization.
http://www3.who.int/icf/icftemplate.cfm?myurl=checklist.html&mytitle=ICF%20Checklist
A checklist of the ICF categories for a clinician or practitioner to record the funtioning and disability of an individual; to be used with the ICF manual.