Finding that perfect teamwork, camaraderie and understanding between optometrists and occupational therapists is a goal for Alicia Reiser, MS, OTR/L, OTD ‘18, ADHD-RSP, owner of A Rise Above Occupational Therapy Services, a private practice offering concussion rehabilitation and treatment of neurological disorders.
And, as an adjunct faculty member in the Occupational Therapy (OT) department at Drexel University’s Elkins Park campus, she hopes to expose the program’s doctoral students to the benefits of working with optometry students in the Pennsylvania College of Optometry at Drexel University, which is on the same campus.
According to Dr. Reiser, what OT brings to the table, is a comprehensive understanding of sensory processing, including the functional components and the psycho-social aspects of a patient’s issues, such as those experienced after suffering a concussion.
“So, by working together, we can get the eyes and the brain, and the whole body, to work together so clients can be more functional through occupation and return to those life things that they want to do,” she said. “With what the Drexel program offers, I think it’s a perfect match for us to work together as a team. It just makes sense.”
That’s how Dr. Reiser ended up in what was then Salus University’s first remedial post-professional Doctorate of Occupational Therapy (OTD) track in 2017, under the guidance of Mitchell Scheiman, OD, PhD ‘16, FAAO, FCOVD, then director of graduate programs in biomedicine and dean of Research at Salus and now senior associate dean of Research at Drexel. The OTD track is designed to help licensed OTs progress in their field by becoming advanced content experts, future leaders, or assume teaching roles in higher education.
“The whole idea of getting my doctorate with a remedial vision track allowed me to be able to perform the missing piece, working alongside optometry so that we could conduct the neurological vision treatment I was looking to do,” said Dr. Reiser.
What Dr. Reiser is teaching Drexel OT students is that as they graduate and spread out across the country, that they continue to network among themselves. In addition, she has initiated advocacy with the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) — the national professional board for OTs — to establish a community of practice. The idea is to pool association members together to talk about vision remediation and develop ideas on how to expand people’s knowledge with the backing of the organization, making sure clinicians are trained with higher level skills and integrating optometry into their practice.
Dr. Reiser acknowledges the importance of an interprofessional relationship with optometry and wants both professions to know the value of the other. “As OTs, we’re constantly looking at the whole person and the eyes are part of that dynamic system. So, vision is super-imperative to what we do. And, we can’t do a complete job if we don’t have the support from optometry,” she said.
According to Dr. Reiser, the feedback she receives from students is positive.
“Everybody who does this program is excited about vision in the first place, and they know that it can be a solution to integrate into their treatment plan and even further develop their career in the area of private practice or leadership,” she said. “When they leave the program, it opens a whole new array of doors in which they can treat their clients.”
