Mission
The Occupational Therapy Program at Colorado Mesa University strives to prepare practitioners-scholars to meet the diverse occupational needs of individuals, groups, and populations (i.e., the client) across contexts and throughout the lifespan. Consistent with the university's mission to become a Human Scale University, the program is committed to:
- Providing an affordable and accessible education
- Forming meaningful and mutually enriching community partnerships
- Producing excellence in critical thinking and ethical decision making
- Building competence in leadership, advocacy, and research
Vision
We envision a campus community that is a model of the world we want to create. CMU aspires to be a Human Scale Univsersity that serves as a model of the world we want to live in; a world where people aspire to love, extend dignity, choose courage, demonstrate humility, develop resiliency, celebrate curiosity, and use power for good.
Philosophy
In alignment with the American Occupational Therapy Association’s (AOTA) Philosophical Base of Occupational Therapy (2017), Colorado Mesa University’s Occupational Therapy Program believes engagement in occupations is fundamental to health. All persons, groups, and populations (i.e., clients) have an innate need to engage in meaningful occupations across the lifespan (AOTA, 2020). A core philosophical assumption of the profession is that people of all ages and abilities require occupation to grow and thrive; in pursuing occupation, humans express a mind–body–spirit union (Hooper & Wood, 2019). Occupational therapy practitioners view this transactional relationship as the foundation for using occupation as therapy. This knowledge sets occupational therapy apart as a distinct and valuable service for which a focus on the whole is considered stronger than isolated aspects of human functioning (Hildenbrand & Lamb, 2013).
Occupational therapy educational programs prepare future practitioners (i.e., occupational therapists and occupational therapy assistants) to address the occupational needs of all clients. In agreement with the AOTA’s Philosophy on Occupational Therapy Education (AOTA, 2018), Colorado Mesa University’s Occupational Therapy Program views humans as occupational beings, occupation as a health determinant, and participation in occupations as a fundamental human right. Educators facilitate professional reasoning that is client-centered, evidence-based, and theory driven (AOTA, 2018). Students develop skills in clinical reasoning, critical thinking, and cultural understanding. Through this process, students build the foundation of their professional identity.
American Occupational Therapy Association. (2020). Occupational therapy practice framework: Domain and process (4 ed.).
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74(Supplement_2). 1-87.
http://doi.org/10.5014/ajot.2020.74S2001
American Occupational Therapy Association. (2017). Philosophical Base of Occupational Therapy.
The American Journal of Occupational Therapy,
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http://doi.org/10.5014/ajot.2017.716S06
American Occupational Therapy Association. (2018). Philosophy of occupational therapy education.
The American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 72(Supplement_2), 1-2.
http://doi.org/10.5014/ajot.2018.72S201
Hildenbrand, W. C., & Lamb, A. J. (2013). Occupational therapy in prevention and
wellness: Retaining relevance in a new health care world. The American Journal of
Hooper, B., & Wood, W. (2019). The philosophy of occupational therapy: A framework for practice. In B. A. B. Schell & G. Gillen (Eds.), Willard and Spackman’s occupational therapy (13th ed., pp. 43–55). Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
