What DEIJAB Means for Occupational Therapy Practice?
Six ideas, each tied to the work occupational therapy practitioners do every day.
Diversity
Equity
Inclusion
Fair treatment is not equal treatment. It means identifying what each client actually needs and tailoring our approach accordingly.
The recognition that our clients, colleagues, and communities represent a wide range of identities, backgrounds, cultures, abilities, and life experiences.
Creating clinics, teams, and an association where every person feels respected, welcomed, and able to fully participate.
Justice
Access
Belonging
Looking beyond the individual to examine the systems that shape who gets care, who gets referred, and who gets better, and acting when those systems are unfair.
Addressing the real-world barriers (financial, geographic, linguistic, cultural) that keep people from receiving occupational therapy at all.
The felt sense that a client, student, or colleague is not just present, but seen, valued, and safe.
Grounded In Our Code
DEIJAB isn’t confined to one Core Value or one Principle. Equity and Advocacy are named directly as Core Values, and every one of the Code’s six Ethical Principles points back to the same commitment.
Beneficence
Nonmaleficence
Autonomy
Taking action to benefit every person we serve: meeting unique needs and removing what stands in their way.
Refusing to let bias, exclusion, or unequal treatment cause harm, even unintentionally, to anyone in our care.
Honoring each person’s right to self-determination: their culture and identity help shape the goals of care.
Justice
Veracity
Fidelity
Promoting equity, inclusion, and objectivity: equal respect regardless of age, ability, race, gender, or origin.
Communicating clearly and removing barriers (language, literacy, culture) so every person truly understands their care.
Treating every service recipient and colleague with respect, fairness, and integrity, regardless of who they are.
That is DEIJAB. Written into every principle of our code. Binding on every one of us.
In Practice
The Gap Between the Chart and the Person
A patient’s chart called for ambulation goals and functional transfers. What she actually needed was to know she could put on and take off her hijab herself, before anyone entered the room and/or before she left the room to engage in therapy. The gap between the two wasn’t clinical, it was cultural. Noticing it, and closing it, is DEIJAB work.
When we close the gap between what’s in the chart and what a patient actually needs, we’re not doing extra credit. We’re doing what the Code requires. We’re doing occupational therapy.
What OOTA is Doing
Reach out to Karla Reese, Director of DEIJAB Initiatives for OOTA
How We Uphold DEIJAB Through Our Mission and Vision
DEIJAB is how OOTA carries out its mission and vision. It is part of the work itself.
Our Mission
Our Vision
To connect Ohio occupational therapy practitioners with education, advocacy, and professional community support they need to deliver client-centered and evidence-informed care.
To affirm occupational therapy practitioners as essential contributors to healthcare and community well-being throughout Ohio.
Education. Learning to see bias, culture, and systems helps practitioners meet what each client actually needs.
Essential contributors. We are essential when we meet people where they are, which is what the Code requires.
Advocacy. Equity and Advocacy are named Core Values of the Code. Justice work means acting when systems are unfair.
Throughout Ohio. Access work addresses the financial, geographic, linguistic, and cultural barriers that keep people from care.
Professional community. Inclusion and belonging mean every practitioner and student is welcomed and able to participate fully.
Community well-being. Well-being is shared only when every community is seen, served, and able to belong.
Client-centered care. Client-centered means the chart and the person match, as in the story above.