PARTICIPATE IN ADVOCACY

The federal government expanded Canada’s Student Loan Forgiveness to support ten additional professions in order to address health workforce shortages and improve access to primary care and mental health services in rural and remote communities – but occupational therapy was NOT included.

Advocate for occupational therapy to be added to the Canada Student Loan Forgiveness program by sending a letter to your local MP.

OT Clinician Letter

OT Student Letter

How You Can Help

OTs are essential to Canada’s health-care system, providing the support that helps people live healthier, more independent lives. Yet OTs are being left out of key policies such as student loan forgiveness.   

It’s clear the federal government does not understand the role that OTs play in team-based care, and we must  do more work to raise awareness of the value OTs bring to the communities we serve. This is where we are focusing our advocacy efforts, and we need your help to get the word out.  

Let’s work together to ensure the role of OTs is valued and recognized, and that the occupational therapy workforce is empowered, supported, and enabled to work to its full scope of practice. 

  • Find your local member of parliament on social media. Tag them in a post explaining how this decision impacts you as an OT!

  • Our elections toolkit was created to help you promote occupational therapy to candidates as a key solution for rehabilitating our health care system back to function and health.

  • Use our automatic letter template to quickly send a letter to your local MP to advocate for OTs in Canada.