Occupational Therapist

Location: San Francisco General Hospital, Inpatient Psychiatry

Part-time opportunity for an OT available.

Good pay, very supportive staff, and excellent learning opportunities on an acute psychiatric unit.

Contact Olivia Flores-Beavineau (OT director) for more information.

Kimberly Aspelund

January 13, 1960 – January 8, 2004

by Vivian Banish Levitt, MA, OTR/L, ATR-BC, LMFT

The death of our friend and colleague, Kim Aspelund, has left an enormous hole in the occupational therapy community. Our profound grief is for the loss of a pioneer and teacher in the field of community mental health and for the loss of a compassionate, special person who touched so many lives.

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Download POTAC Scholarship PDF

Since the loss of our dear friend and active Steering Committee member, Kim Aspelund, POTAC has been accepting contributions to sponsor a scholarship in her name. The scholarship is for eligible students from California schools of occupational therapy who will be participating in community-based psychosocial internships. If you would like to apply for this scholarship, please download the application and instructions as directed on the link.

Chair of the Kim Aspelund Memorial Scholarship project is Ruth Ramsey, Ed.D., OTR/L, Dominican University of California at San Rafael.

The new membership year for POTAC begins in July. Our billing statements are mailed out in September after the first Steering Committee meeting, so please watch your mailboxes. You can download an application from our Website on the Join POTAC page.

POTAC’s current activities include:

1. Dissemination of information to mental health OTs via a quarterly newsletter, an e-mail network, the POTAC Web site, and publication of POTAC presentations, trainings and symposia in state OT publications.
2. Sharing information about employment opportunities via the POTAC Newsletter and e-list.
3. Sponsoring trainings, lectures, roundtable discussions, and research outcomes through Friday Forums and annual symposia.
4. Collaboration with OTAC and AOTA on educational projects, conference presentations, and publications such as OT in Mental Health, the Mental Health Special Interest Section Quarterly, and OT Practice.
5. Encouragement of members’ active participation in OTAC through involvement with the Practice Committee and the AOTA Mental Health Special Interest Section.
6. Developing partnerships with other professional groups such as the local chapter of the NAMI; USPRA; and CCMH.
7. Collaborating with local universities to encourage students to consider mental health careers, and to encourage OTR to participate in continuing and graduate education, as well as to work as mentors and fieldwork supervisors.
8. Encouraging more OT research, and the dissemination of research outcomes through publication in OT and non-OT journals and speaking in professional and community settings.
9. Encouragement of participation in the political process to advocate for consumers and provision of mental health services.
10. The development of the Kim Aspelund Scholarship to assist OT students who are involved in internships in mental health settings.

Current membership is $15 a year, which includes the POTAC Newsletter.