Judith Mulder, COTA, CYT: OT in Employment & Vocational Services

In this post, we will be learning about an occupational therapy practitioner working in Employment and Vocational Services.  You will hear from the personal and professional experiences of Judith Mulder, COTA, CYT, who is a Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant with a degree from Mountain Mary College in Yankton, South Dakota. Judith has over 40 years of experience working in mental health OT and started her career working in state hospitals in South Dakota for a wide population of patients including supervising level one and level two students. After moving to New York City, Judith has been working at Mount Sinai Hospital where she provided job coaching services at an integrated continuing day treatment supported employment program. Four years ago, Judith was offered a position as a project coordinator at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai to develop a Vocational Services Program at the Selikoff Centers for Occupational Health. Judith is also a certified Hatha level one yoga instructor, and a certified yoga therapist with over 15 years of experience, teaching mat, chair, and restorative yoga. Judith has provided yoga classes, relaxation, and meditation while working with her patients.

Q & A with Judith:

Please tell us a little about yourself. 

I grew up on a farm in South Dakota working closely with my mother preparing meals and taking care of the home for seven family members. I enjoy being outdoors in nature walking and jogging with my husband, yoga, dancing, adopting orphan house plants and bird watching. I believe collaborating with someone to identify what is meaningful and then create a plan to strive for goals for a better quality of life is very important.

What motivated you to contribute to this series?

To inform others about the opportunities to provide OT interventions even if it is not a common OT type job. It is a great way to open the eye of the public to what OT can offer.

Please describe the Uncommon OT work that you do and the setting in which you work, the population you serve and the needs that you address. 

I provide vocational services at the Selikoff Centers for Occupational Health for patients who have obtained a work injury or a mental health condition due to the type of work or work environment. Many of the patients have a Workers' Compensation Case and need assistance meeting the Workers' Comp. job search requirements. I provide vocational counseling for patients who need to make a career change due to work limitation from their work injuries, or workers who have not been working for a few years and want to return to work again and need assistance with resume/cover letter writing, mock interviewing, community and online resources for skills training or higher education, assistance with life skills, coping strategies and support. I provided ongoing services as long as the patient wants to receive the services. The services are tailored to each individual's needs and length of time services are provided vary.

What drew you to this type of OT work? 

I always wanted to help people and started out wanting to be a nurse. While I was deciding if nursing was the right path for me I heard about Occupational Therapy and it sounded like a good fit. I like to be hands-on and helping people help themselves through meaningful activity.

How did you get there? 

Once I found out about Occupational Therapy, I did more research and spoke with others about OT. I found out that Mount Marty College offered a special studies program for students who wanted to obtain a certification/degree in field that was not offered at Mount Marty College. Once that was set up, I applied to OTA programs and was accepted to a program in Columbus, OH.

Please describe a typical day or OT session at your setting? 

I check my emails for vocational referrals. Once the referral is received I check the patients records in the Epic system and call the patient to introduce the services and scheduled an intake appointment if patient is still interested. I schedule all my patients. I check my schedule for the day for intakes and follow up sessions with patients. I work remotely since the pandemic offering phone or zoom sessions to work on patient's vocational plan. My day is filled with speaking with patients to monitor progress, collaborate on goals and plans, discuss other options if needed, provide support and focus, and practical support providing assistance writing resumes and cover letters with patients, instructing patients how to conduct an online job search, providing resources for patients in the community and online and encouraging patients not to give up. Sometimes I just listen and let the patient come up with course of action and provided feedback and recommendations.  

Can you talk about some recent highs (successes) and lows (challenges) of your current role? 

My recent high was when one of my patients I have been working with for about 3 years finally found another job. I helped the patient learn how to create a profile on the hospital website and how to job search online. The patient worked hard and applied daily. Low challenges are when patients have developed a disease or injury that has caused many limitations and they are not able to return to their current work and have worked there many years and did need to learn computer skills, resume writing online jobs searching and sometimes do not have citizenship or speak the English language.

How do you continue to learn in order to stay on top of things within your role? 

Continuing education, talking with other team members, attending meetings and listening other professionals, AOTA website and Specialty Groups, online courses and webinars.

Anything you can share about the typical salary and compensation? How OT is funded? 

I am not so familiar with this since I am paid through a grant and do not have to bill for services.

Any career advice for our followers and listeners on how to get started in this setting? 

Listen to your patients with empathy not sympathy. Let them know that you are meeting them where they are ... not where society or we think they should be. Collaborate with the patient, after all, it is their life and only they really know what is meaningful to them. Be open minded to learn from your patients ... they are the best teachers.

What’s a common myth or misconception about your job you’d like to call out? 

That we have connections or a list jobs and employers to just call and to get someone into a job. The working world has changed so much and especially after the pandemic.

How do we find you, follow you, be in touch with you, and promote your unique work? 

Email is the best: jmulder812@gmail.com

RESOURCE LIST:

Guest Email: Jmulder812@gmail.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/judithmulder27/

https://www.mountsinai.org/care/occupational-health

As always, I welcome any feedback from all of you or if you are interested on being a guest on future episodes, please do not hesitate to contact Patricia Motus at transitionsot@gmail.com or DM via Instagram @transitionsot

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