‘Poorer cousins’ of docs much in demand

Teacher in action: Dr Chai showing a procedure to Occupation Therapy students at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia’s Faculty of Health Sciences.

PETALING JAYA: Occupational therapists (OTs) may seem like the “poorer cousins” of medical doctors but they are much more in demand now.

Students of occupational therapy are being offered jobs even before their graduation, said Dr Chai Siaw Chui, who lectures at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia’s Occupa-tional Therapy programme.

“If you have a qualification in OT, you can go anywhere,” she said, referring to the versatility of the profession.

Apart from public healthcare, she said OT specialists could choose to work in paediatric and geriatric care, mental institutions, city councils or the Social Security Organi­sation.

The starting salary of OTs in public service is usually at RM2,429 (Grade U41) while doctors start at RM2,947 (Grade UD41)

Dr Chai said occupational therapy students were trained to seek creative solutions to their patients’ problems, which range from psycho-social issues to having an ill-equipped working environment.

Compared to other countries, Malaysia has fewer than half of the average number of OT specialists, according to a report by the World Federation of Occupational Thera­pists.

The ideal ratio, according to Dr Chai, was one occupational therapist for every 2,000 people.

“Companies would call us up and ask to ‘reserve’ some students for them,” she said.

About 90% of the 230 graduates produced yearly in the country end up working in the civil service, taking up positions in public hospitals and in the Health Ministry, said Dr Chai.

Those numbers, she said, were not enough to fill up rehabilitative roles, preventing OTs from reaching their potential of promoting health and preventive therapies.

Dr Chai, who specialises in hand therapy, explained that OT played an important role in ensuring surgery patients regain mobility of their limbs.

“Let’s take the case of a patient who has had his hand reattached by surgery. The surgery offers a 50% chance of him regaining his mobility. Another 50% depends on OT,” she said.

She said OTs would also help children with learning disabilities.

Unfortunately, she said occupational therapy was not a well-known career path, with few pre-university students applying for the course. Her university is embarking on a nationwide campaign to recruit students.

Though some functions of OTs overlap with physiotherapists, the latter work primarily with helping individuals recover from injuries with a combination of massage and exercise.