225 ILCS 75/2

(225 ILCS 75/2) (from Ch. 111, par. 3702)

(Section scheduled to be repealed on January 1, 2029)

Sec. 2. Definitions. In this Act:

(1) "Department" means the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation.

(2) "Secretary" means the Secretary of the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation.

(3) "Board" means the Illinois Occupational Therapy Licensure Board appointed by the Secretary.

(4) "Occupational therapist" means a person initially registered and licensed to practice occupational therapy as defined in this Act, and whose license is in good standing.

(5) "Occupational therapy assistant" means a person initially registered and licensed who assists in the practice of occupational therapy under this Act. The occupational therapy assistant shall work under appropriate supervision of and in partnership with a licensed occupational therapist.

(6) "Occupational therapy" means the therapeutic use of everyday life occupations and activities with recipients, groups, or populations to support occupational performance and participation. "Occupational therapy practice" includes clinical reasoning and professional judgment to evaluate, analyze, and address occupational challenges, including issues with client factors, performance patterns, and performance skills and provide occupation-based interventions to address the challenges. Through the provision of skilled services and engagement in everyday activities, occupational therapy promotes physical and mental health and well-being by supporting occupational performance in people with, or are at risk of experiencing, a range of developmental, physical, and mental health disorders. Occupational therapy may be provided via technology or telecommunication methods, also known as telehealth, however the standard of care shall be the same whether a patient or recipient is seen in person, through telehealth, or other method of electronically enabled health care. Occupational therapy practice may include any of the following components:

(A) evaluation of factors affecting activities of daily living, instrumental activities of daily living, health management, rest and sleep, education, work, play, leisure, and social participation;

(B) methods or approaches to identify and select interventions; and

(C) interventions and procedures including:

(i) remediation or restoration of performance abilities that are limited due to impairment in biological, physiological, psychological, or neurological processes;

(ii) modification or adaptation of task, process, or the environment or the teaching of compensatory techniques in order to enhance performance;

(iii) disability prevention methods and techniques that facilitate the development or safe application of performance skills; and

(iv) health and wellness promotion strategies, including self-management strategies, and practices that enhance performance abilities.

The licensed occupational therapist or licensed occupational therapy assistant may assume a variety of roles in the licensee's career including, but not limited to, practitioner, supervisor of professional students and volunteers, researcher, scholar, consultant, administrator, faculty, clinical instructor, fieldwork educator, and educator of consumers, peers, family members, and care-partners.

(7) "Occupational therapy services" means services that may be provided to individuals, groups, and populations, when provided to treat an occupational therapy need, including the following:

(a) evaluating, developing, improving, sustaining, or restoring skills in self-care, self-management, health management, including medication-management, health routines, rest and sleep, home management, community and work integration, school activities, work performance, and play and leisure activities;

(b) identification, development, and remediation or compensation for deficits in physical, neuromusculoskeletal, sensory-perceptual, emotional regulation, visual, mental, and cognitive functions; pain tolerance and management; praxis; developmental skills; and behavioral skills or psychosocial components of performance with considerations for cultural context and activity demands that affect performance;

(c) assessing, designing, fabricating, applying, or training in the use of assistive technology, adaptive devices, seating and positioning, orthoses and training in the use of prostheses;

(d) modification of contexts in settings, such as home, school, work, and community, and adaptation of processes, including the application of ergonomic principles, to enhance performance and safety in daily life roles;

(e) for the occupational therapist or occupational therapy assistant possessing advanced training, skill, and competency as demonstrated through criteria that shall be determined by the Department, applying physical agent modalities, including dry needling, as an adjunct to or in preparation for engagement in occupations;

(f) evaluating and providing intervention in collaboration with the recipient, family, caregiver, or others;

(g) educating the recipient, family, caregiver, groups, populations, or others in carrying out appropriate nonskilled interventions;

(h) consulting with groups, programs, organizations, or communities to provide population-based services;

(i) assessing, recommending, and training in techniques to enhance functional mobility, including wheelchair fitting and management and other mobility devices;

(j) driver rehabilitation and community mobility;

(k) management of feeding, eating, and swallowing to enable or enhance performance of these tasks;

(l) low vision rehabilitation;

(m) lymphedema and wound care management;

(n) pain management;

(o) care coordination, case management, and transition services;

(p) exercises, including tasks and methods to increase motion, strength, and endurance for occupational participation;

(q) virtual interventions, including simulated, real-time, and near-time technologies, consisting of telehealth and mobile technology;

(r) evaluating and treating problems of rest and sleep;

(s) group interventions, including the use of dynamics of group and social interaction to facilitate learning and skill acquisition across the life course; and

(t) habilitation, rehabilitation, and the promotion of physical and mental health and wellness for clients with all levels of ability-related needs and for clients who have or are at risk for developing an illness, injury, disease, disorder, condition, impairment, disability, and activity limitation or participation restriction.

(8) (Blank).

(9) "Address of record" means the designated address recorded by the Department in the applicant's or licensee's application file or license file as maintained by the Department's licensure maintenance unit.

(10) "Recipient" means a person, group, or population who receives occupational therapy services.

(11) "Email address of record" means the designated email address recorded by the Department in the applicant's application file or the licensee's license file, as maintained by the Department's licensure maintenance unit.

(12) "Care-partner" or "caregiver" means someone, in a paid or unpaid capacity, who, by mutual agreement with the individual living with a temporary or chronic condition or disability, assists that individual with the individual's physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual care in either habilitative or rehabilitative capacity.

(Source: P.A. 102-307, eff. 1-1-22; 103-251, eff. 1-1-24.)