Georgia National OT News Archive

News from Georgia 2016

Despite some technical issues and challenges the year 2016 was a very productive year for GEOTA and played important role in developing and promoting occupational therapy in Georgia. Firstly, the association was officially registered and has new board members, which were elected in October 2016. This will help us participate/create new projects and as a result, enhance our association.

Secondly, as a big step forward, Tbilisi State University’s occupational therapy educational program was officially approved by the World Federation of Occupational Therapy in 2016 and GEOTA became an official member of WFOT. This approval will improve our collaboration with foreign associations and universities, and indicates the quality of teaching.

One of the biggest challenges that occupational therapists have in Georgia, is not having valid assessment tools for fieldwork. GEOTA, as one of the goals for 2016, was negotiating with the Canadian Occupational Therapists Association, about translating and using assessment tools, such as Canadian Occupational Performance Measurement, COPM.

In order to promote and develop occupational therapy, GEOTA was collaborating with mass media and created some video clips about benefits of the profession. For some news and activities, you can check our Facebook page.

On December 8-9 of 2016, the year of the tenth anniversary of the Occupational Therapy in higher education in Georgia, 58 Occupational Therapists and invited guests, delegates from Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia participated in the Third Caucasian Occupational Therapy Conference (devoted to Professional Identity), organized by GEOTA and Tbilisi State University. The theme and the goal of the conference were to advance the goals of professional development, promotion and identity in Caucasian region to enhance the field of rehabilitation and participation of people with diverse needs.

To the conclusion, for the year 2017, GEOTA has established future goals for improving quality of service and promote social inclusion of people with diverse
needs.