The morning of January 27th, 2025 found the Capitol Rotunda filled with those coming together to share the love of our professional of occupational therapy, and advocate for its valuable scope of practice. OTs, OTAs, and occupational therapy students and faculty from ISU and CWI were in person and on-line via ZOOM to share about our unique impact and contribution with members of the Idaho Legislature and support staff.
IOTA Executive Board and affiliated members in attendance either in-person or via ZOOM included President Megan Doyle, President-Elect Ivan Hardcastle, Vice President Lisa Hong, Legislative/Advocacy/Reimbursement Chairperson Breannen McEnany, Southwest District Representative Hilary Sauder, Idaho AOTA RA Representative Catie Canavan, Kylee Permann, DOPL OT Licensure Board member, and Idaho NBCOT Ambassador and Past President Kari Thompson, amongst others. We even had some members of the Idaho Speech, Language and Hearing Association attend, to discuss collaboration between the occupational therapy and speech language pathology professions.
Elevator speeches were shared, along with an invitation to test grip strength and reaction time and interact with a variety of sensory items and adaptive equipment to learn more about our beloved profession of occupational therapy. None of this would have been possible without the support and assistance of our lobbyist, Caroline Merritt, to whom we are so grateful that she supports the practice of occupational therapy in Idaho.
We continue to stay on top of the issues impacting our profession, both at the state and federal level. We have many issues ahead of us, including mental health coverage, reimbursement for our services and the OT Licensure Compact. Having a presence at the Capitol is an important step in bringing issues to light.
We are so proud of the efforts of all the practitioners and students that participated in Hill Day! Being an OT practitioner in Idaho offers unique value every day in so many areas. We are serving the people of the state in rural areas and cities; in small communities and health care facilities, and schools. We have the power to impact lives for the better, and now our state representatives are better educated on our values as well as the issues facing our profession in addition to continuing to network across the state.
If you are not currently an Idaho OT Association member, we encourage you to join today. Your membership dollars directly support our efforts to advocate for YOUR OT practice in the state of Idaho, including our PAID lobbyist, without whom we could not make change.
