News from Associazione Italiana di Terapia Occupazionale (Italy)
To celebrate #WorldOTDay, AITO will organize the National Congress in Rimini with the theme #OTinAction. At the end of the event, the Board of Directors will meet with the regional representatives in the General Council to discuss future directions and strategies for occupational therapy in Italy.
The Association is also resuming its educational activities with new training opportunities, including courses on apraxia and driving adaptations, as well as webinars dedicated to critical appraisal and reading of scientific articles.
In addition, AITO has recently produced two important position papers:
- Recognition and Valorization of the Role of the Occupational Therapist in Rehabilitation Pathways – Normative, Scientific and International Evidence
- Assessment in Occupational Therapy
These documents aim to strengthen the professional identity of occupational therapists and provide evidence-based guidance for practice and policy.
Finally, the call for abstracts is now officially open for the upcoming National Congress of Occupational Therapy entitled “Shaping the Occupational Therapy Workforce through Research: Connecting Practice Domains and Emerging Roles.” Occupational therapists and OT students are warmly invited to submit their abstracts to https://forms.gle/aUhx1q5MvoTWcdhD7. The congress will be held on 22–23 May 2026 at the University of Genoa.
News from Polskie Stowarzyszenie Terapii Zajęciowej (Poland)
On 17 August 2023, the Act on Certain Medical Professions came into force. The provisions of this Act also regulate the work of occupational therapists, introduce a definition of occupational therapy, specify the professional tasks of therapists, and precisely define the education required to use the professional title of occupational therapist.
Since the Act came into force, only persons who have completed higher education in occupational therapy with a bachelor’s degree in occupational therapy and persons who have completed a two-year vocational school and passed a state examination to obtain the professional title of occupational therapist may work as occupational therapists. Thanks to the provisions of the Act, after obtaining this title, one must register with the Central Register of Persons Authorised to Practise the Profession. This register will allow for the creation of a verified group of specialists and will also provide information on the actual number of occupational therapists working in Poland.
The Act also imposes a continuing education obligation on therapists. The main form of such education is an advanced training course, the requirements for which have been developed by members of the Polish Occupational Therapy Association (POTA). The first course is scheduled to take place in the autumn of this year. The total duration of the course is 4 days and includes 32 teaching hours. The specific objectives of the course include: 1. Acquiring knowledge about the current state of occupational therapy in Poland and Europe. 2. Deepening knowledge about the occupational therapy process. 3. Improving the ability to formulate a diagnosis in occupational therapy. 4. Acquiring the ability to use selected assessment tools appropriate for occupational therapy. 5. Learning about examples of how to document the occupational therapy process. 6. Deepening knowledge about the use of therapeutic interventions in relation to different patient groups. 7. Developing the right ethical attitude.
Another of the many forms of professional development is participation in conferences, symposia and training courses. In order to meet the needs of its members, in June 2025 the Polish Occupational Therapy Association organised the 1st POTA Training Meeting called Practitioners to Practitioners, during which occupational therapists had the opportunity to share their work and experiences with each other. We plan to organise such training sessions on a regular basis, once every year.
On behalf of Polish Occupational Therapy Association
Anna Misiorek
