ABSTRACT

It is expected that the demands of medical services in terms of health medical and social welfare will be increased rapidly due to the development of old-aged society and medical technologies. Accordingly the roles and tasks of the occupational therapist become more important, and the demands for the occupational therapist will be also increased. Therefore more systematic andeffective manpower management on the occupational therapists is required.When the occupational therapists are classified by their job sites - clinic, health, and other, this study shows that the proportion of occupational therapist in clinic is the biggest. It is also expected that the proportion will be kept in the future.On this point of view, the demand and supply for the occupational therapists in clinics are discussed in this study.The number of occupational therapists demanded are usually depended upon the factors such as health care needs from public, system of medical fee payment and medical insurance, medical policy, share and coordination system of the role of medical service suppliers, and usage of medical facilities by public.This study shows that even the occupational therapists including the students in college in 2000 itself are over-estimated and over-supplied already under the current system of legislation, even though the estimation on manpower needed in this field shows lack of.In this point of view, this study proposes the measures against the problems expected as follow.1. Legislative specificationIn spite of the varieties of the occupational therapy, only 4 categories of therapy -simple therapy, complex therapy, special therapy, activities of daily living adjustment training method - are specified in the insurance category of the law.Moreover, the law stipulates that special therapy and ADL adjustment training method shall be prescribed by the rehabilitation medicine. Thus the occupational therapy could not be requested from neurosurgery and orthopedic surgery at all.Nevertheless, it is strongly requested that patients from pediatrics, psychiatric, geriatrics, neurology, orthopedics as well as rehabilitation medicine shall be regarded as the subjects of the special therapy in the law.2. Certification of psychiatric health care supplierAccording to the clause 7 of the psychiatric health law, only 3 groups of psychiatric health specialists including clinical psychologist, nurse, and social welfare specialist can supply a psychiatric health care. Anyhow the job descriptions on the clause 2 of the PH law implementation regulation such as ADL adjustment training, occupational and recreational therapy, etc should be classified as the job of occupational therapist. The psychiatric health care courses including the practices are established for the curriculum of the department of occupational therapy in college. And considering that the development of independent ADL ability for the patients is one of the most critical areas of the occupation therapy discipline, theoccupational therapist shall supply the psychiatric health care services,3. Short of facilities and the alternativesThe number of occupational therapy clinics in Korea, 98, is not sufficient.Moreover many of the clinics are at big hospitals in big cities, and only 32 clinics are in regional areas. It is required to inform the government agencies and public opinion leaders that occupational therapy clinics shall not be limited to the big hospitals, rather than health offices managed by government should accept the clinics at first. The ultimate purpose of health services, promoting personal health status and help him to return to the society, is likely accorded with that of occupational therapy. Therefore it is requested that the occupational therapycli