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New Mexico Occupational Therapy Scope of Practice

How is occupational therapy defined in New Mexico?

"Occupational therapy" means the therapeutic use of occupations, including everyday life activities with persons across the life span, including groups, populations or organizations, to enhance or enable participation, performance or function in roles, habits and routines in home, school, workplace, community and other settings. 

Occupational therapy services are provided for habilitation, rehabilitation and the promotion of health and wellness to those clients who have or are at risk for developing an illness, injury, disease, disorder, condition, impairment, disability, activity limitation or participation restriction. 

What is included in the practice of occupational therapy?

Evaluation of factors affecting all areas of occupation, including activities of daily living, instrumental activities of daily living, rest and sleep, education, work, productivity, play, leisure and social participation; including:

    • Client factors, including neuromuscular, sensory, visual, mental, cognitive and pain factors and body structures, including cardiovascular, digestive, integumentary and genitourinary systems and structures related to movement;
    • Habits, routines, roles and behavior patterns;
    • Cultural, physical, environmental, social and spiritual contexts and activity demands that affect performance; and
    • Performance skills, including motor process and communication and interaction skills.

Activity analysis to determine activity demands of occupations performed.

Design, implementation and modification of therapeutic interventions, including the following activities related to selection of intervention strategies to direct the process of interventions:

    • Establishment, remediation or restoration of a skill or ability that has not yet developed, is impaired or is in decline;
    • Compensation, modification or adaptation of activity or environment to enhance performance or to prevent injuries, disorders or other conditions;
    •  Retention, maintenance and enhancement of skills and capabilities without which performance in everyday life activities would decline;
    • Promotion of health and wellness, including the use of self-management strategies to enable or enhance performance in everyday life activities;
    • Prevention of barriers to performance, including injury and disability prevention; and
    • Interventions and procedures to promote or enhance safety and performance in areas of occupation, including:
      • Therapeutic use of occupations, exercises and activities;
      • Training in self-care, self-management, health management and maintenance, home management, community-work reintegration, school activities and work performance;
      • Development, remediation or compensation of neuromusculoskeletal, sensory-perceptual, sensory-integrative and modulation, visual, mental and cognitive functions, pain tolerance and management, developmental skills and behavioral skills;
      • Therapeutic use of self, including one's personality, insights, perceptions and judgments, as part of the therapeutic process;
      • Education and training of persons, including family members, caregivers, groups, populations and others;
      • Care coordination, case management and transition services;
      • Consultative services to groups, programs, organizations or communities;
      • Modification of home, work, school and community environments and adaptation of processes, including the application of ergonomic principles;
      • Assessment, design, fabrication, application, fitting and training in seating and positioning, assistive technology, adaptive devices and orthotic devices and training in the use of prosthetic devices;
      • Assessment, recommendation and training in techniques to enhance functional mobility, including management of wheelchairs and other mobility devices;
      • Low-vision rehabilitation;
      • Driver rehabilitation and community mobility;
      • Management of feeding, eating and swallowing;
      • Application of physical agent modalities and use of a range of specific therapeutic procedures such as wound care management; techniques to enhance sensory, perceptual and cognitive processing; and manual therapy techniques to enhance performance skills;
      • Facilitating the occupational performance of groups, populations or organizations; and
      • Management of a client's mental health, functioning and performance.

Use of means to measure the outcomes and effects of interventions to reflect the attainment of treatment goals, including:

    • Improved quality of life;
    • The degree of participation;
    • Role competence;
    • Well-being;
    • Improved life function;
    • Enhanced performance; and
    • Prevention criteria.

What is specifically excluded from the practice?

N/A

Are there any special trainings or requirements?

N/A

Reference

N.M. Stat. § 61-12A-3

N.M. Stat. § 61-12A-4

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