Healthcare executives are increasingly turning to occupational therapy, a century-old profession whose scope of services and breadth of programs has taken on heightened importance recently.

Occupational therapy enables people of all ages to live better after illness or chronic disability. With its roots in psychiatric care, today's occupational therapy practitioners tackle myriad conditions while serving a mix of patients. From working with an autistic child, to slowing down functional decline due to Alzheimer's disease, to holding seminars for caregivers, occupational therapy is helping to improve outcomes and save money through its unique ability to address the physical, environmental, psychological and social needs.

Leveraging an ever-evolving body of scientific data and evidence-based knowledge, therapists help individuals of all ages get beyond disability or limitations and design their lives, develop their skills, adjust their environments, increase their confidence, bolster their independence and build health-promoting habits. And by focusing on prevention and wellness as well, occupational therapy is increasingly being recognized as an essential ingredient to building a sustainable, equitable and affordable healthcare system for 300 million Americans.

Beyond the formal peer-reviewed studies, occupational therapy's contribution reaches other areas. For example, if occupational therapy is involved in determining, analyzing and directing what an aide does for someone in home care, the aide's services are more effective and patients are more readily promoted to safely do more for themselves. As a result, fewer aide visits become necessary; and that's good for the patient, the insurer and the healthcare system as a whole.

Physicians, too, are looking at occupational therapy as a health resource. Because occupational therapy is provided in many different settings—private practice, hospitals, community health and mental health centers, schools, work places, industry, and private homes—the opportunities to tap into this resource are abundant.

Occupational therapy can be valuable in providing customized strategies to address behavioral issues in children related to sensory processing, learning disabilities or other conditions that keep them from achieving. It can help in the assessment and training of people of all ages in the use of assistive devices such as prosthetic devices, low-vision aids and wheelchairs.

So, too, it can address the needs of people with mental illness by assisting them to perform the occupations of daily living (like medication management) or to ease or prevent problems for workers with physically challenging jobs. And for seniors, occupational therapy can help them become safer drivers, assist with chronic care issues, minimize their risk of falls, or simply help them enjoy the full participation in life. All of these people and so many others are being helped today through occupational therapy.

In an era where consumers want to increasingly be empowered and maximize life's potential as they age, occupational therapy focuses on what's important to the patient: helping them reach their goals, function at the highest possible level and participate in everyday activities.

Frederick P. Somers is executive director of the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA), which represents the professional interests and concerns of more than 140,000 occupational therapists, occupational therapy assistants and students nationwide.