P/T & O/T Assistant

[xoemmylouox]

Has anyone else noticed the heavy marketing of P/T & O/T assistant programs? It seems like they are the new thing so hopefully everyone will start flooding that market.

[ceccia]

where we are it's usual for an assistant to make ~75% of a therapist's salary. It does seem a bit strange that they make so much compared to the supervising therapist, who has had to go through a 4-year undergrad degree and then a masters (OT) or clinical doctorate (PT).

The problem is, PTA programs are becoming a dime a dozen and now PTAs are having the same trouble as everyone else finding work. OTs and COTA's are doing okay now, but many therapists I've talked with at work think that Medicare/insurance is trying to do away with their profession by saying that there isn't anything an OT does that isn't already done by PT (upper extremity strength/ROM, balance, etc), nursing (basic ADL training), or speech therapy (cognition).