What is Occupational Therapy?

As part of the health care community, the focus of occupational therapy is to facilitate participation and engagement in meaningful, purposeful activities in their daily lives.

Stemmed from the root word, occupation, occupational therapy focuses on using tasks, activities, groups, virtual experiences, or education to engage in occupations: those things that matter to an individual, group or population.

Occupational therapy considers the complex and fluid relationship between clients, activities and their environment. Occupational therapists work with individuals, families, caregivers, educational providers, employers and community members to facilitate engagement in valued daily activities that may have had disruption due to injury, illness, social/emotional deficits, developmental delays or the aging processes.

Tarleton State’s OTD Mission & Vision

OTD Mission Statement

It is the mission of the occupational therapy program create scholarly practitioners with a strong commitment and passion for lifelong learning community service and knowledge translation through an occupation-based lens. We fulfill the mission of Tarleton State through achieving prominence in occupational therapy through teaching excellence, strong interdisciplinary teams, innovative scholarship, and transformative experiences that reflect the values of the Institution and College.

OTD Program’s Vision

Advancing Rural Health through Engagement in Occupations

Overarching Goal of OT Program of Study

Graduates from Tarleton State University’s OTD program will be uniquely and intentionally prepared, by their experiences at an interdisciplinary facility at the College of Health Sciences, to practice within interdisciplinary teams as leaders and innovators in current and emerging practice settings with a strong focus evidenced-based occupational therapy with underrepresented populations within the community.

Tarleton State has received significant, intentional state funding to prepare graduates in health science programs to serve the underrepresented populations and groups in rural communities. The OTD program is part of Tarleton’s commitment to its rural community and improving access to quality health care locally.

Join us for our second Preview Day on 04/12/2025!