The 6th Occupational Therapy Congress took place at the Forum Fribourg from the 24th to 25th of May. The motto 'Empowerment Matters' encouraged a lively exchange between occupational therapists, interprofessional specialists and for the first-time service users were also part of the discussions. Participants got to hear a first-hand account on the need for successful public-school education and work integration from people with lived experience concerning physical disability or mental health problems. In addition, the results of the “Survey on the Size and Structure of the Swiss Occupational Therapy Workforce work force Switzerland” research project (Gantschnig et al., 2024) on the number and structure of occupational therapy jobs in Switzerland were presented, an important key element not only for further research and development in our profession, but also for the association's commitment at a political level. The “Research Data and Questionnaires on Occupational Therapy Workforce” is openly available in German, French, Italian and English: Survey on the Size and Structure of the Swiss Occupational Therapy Workforce.
The University of Applied Sciences East (OST) has commenced with the new bachelor's degree in occupational therapy in September 2024. This is the second German-language degree programme in Switzerland. It is the first degree program in Switzerland which offers the option of completing the 180 ETCS points as part-time study in eight semesters in addition to the standard 6-semester full-time option. This makes it easier for people with existing vocational training to access the University of Applied Sciences degree program and thus diversifying the intake of future Occupational Therapists.
From fall semester 2025, 289 Occupational Therapists (ZHAW:120/ HETSL: 90/ 24 Supsi: 24/ OST: 53) are expected to be enrolled in the degree programs, which is a record number. Although this is the right step into alleviating the shortage of Occupational Therapists, the challenge in the coming 4-5 years is to offer enough practice placements. The shortage of Occupational Therapists in practice makes it hard to recruit enough fieldwork supervisors and is further exacerbated by the still inadequate financing of fieldwork placement within the Swiss Health Care System.
New legal regulations, including those on professional licenses, which are controlled by the cantons and no longer centrally organized by the federal government, complicate the work of the Swiss Occupational Therapy Association (EVS/ASE) and the workforce. This could further fragment the healthcare system in Switzerland and make it more difficult to employ foreign Occupational Therapists. In June, the national referendum on the ‘cost brake health care initiative’ was overturned, thanks to the combined public relations efforts of the professional health care associations including EVS/ASE. This secured the access and needs-based financing of the healthcare system.
Tanja Di Nicola, 2nd Alternate Switzerland
Reference:
Gantschnig, B. E., Ballmer, T., Petrig, A., Eggenberger, B., Moioli, S., & Kühne, N. (2024). Survey on the size and structure of the Swiss occupational therapy workforce (Version 1.0.0) [Data set]. FORS data service.