OT Clinics

The Occupational Therapy Program offers a choice of several types of clinics as a practicum course for graduate occupational therapy students. Clinic choices include: mental health, physical disabilities, and pediatric clinics preschool/school age. The clinics are designed to provide O.T students with an opportunity to further develop their clinical skills under the supervision of a faculty member. Although on-campus clinics (originally called senior clinic) have existed at SJSU since 1944 ( Pedretti, 1993 ), a clinic solely for people with serious mental illness was not introduced into the O.T. curriculum until 1982 ( Klasson and MacRae, 1985 ). In all of the SJSU clinics, each student therapist is assigned one client for the semester for whom the student has primary responsibility for evaluation and the development of a treatment plan. However, a student therapist may actually treat two or even three clients during the course of the semester because the clinic often over enrolls clients to compensate for a relatively high rate of absenteeism. Group activity is one intervention tool that is used in the clinics to help familiarize the students with every client in the clinic.

About pediatrics clinic - preschool/school age

Concurrent with each clinic is a seminar facilitated by a faculty member and usually a graduate assistant. This seminar is for instruction, support and supervision. The seminar operates like a team meeting, with the faculty member filling the dual roles of student instructor and clinical supervisor. By conducting the seminar as a team meeting, the clinic supervisor invokes privileges of confidentiality. This means that participants are not to discuss any aspect of client evaluation or treatment outside of the seminar or clinic without expressed written consent of the client.

Participate

If you are interested in participating in the on-campus clinics, please complete the clinic referral form and the faculty member assigned to teach the on-campus clinic will contact you at the end of August to the beginning of September for the Fall semester or the end of January to the beginning of February for the Spring semester. Faculty do not work during the summer months or the winter break.

CHHS Impact Report article on OT Clinics
CHHS Impact Report article on OT Clinics

CHHS Impact Report article on OT Clinics

Check out the highlights of the OT Clinics on the College of Health and Human Sciences Impact Report, 2023 - 2023, p. 17. Click on the link provided on the heading to see the full report.