Elder Care in Occupational Therapy

Sandra Cutler Lewis, MFA, OTR/L, received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. She has published articles pertaining to geriatrics in the following periodicals: The Gerontologist, The American Journal of Occupational Therapy, Hospital and Community Psychiatry, Osteopathic Annals, The Activity Director’s Guide, The Gerontology Special Interest Section Newsletter, The Occupational Therapy Forum, and The Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. She has authored three books, The Mature Years: A Geriatric Occupational Therapy Text, Providing for the Older Adult: A Gerontological Handbook, and Elder Care in Occupational Therapy. Ms. Lewis has been a reviewer for a number of the American Occupational Therapy Association’s (AOTA) position papers concerning gerontic occupational therapy; a professional publishing house; a paraprofessional, commercial publishing house; and a professional multi-disciplinary journal. She has served as a contributing author to AOTA’s Role of Occupational Therapy with the Elderly, First Edition and as a member of the Editorial Review Board for Module III of the second edition of AOTA’s Role of Occupational Therapy With the Elderly. Ms. Lewis has been listed in Who’s Who of American Women and is a lifetime member of Sigma Phi Omega, the National Gerontology Academic Honor and Professional Society.

Work experience in adult care has included a community evening arts program in a settlement house, psychiatric occupational therapy in a private mental hospital, occupational therapy in a rehabilitation center, and acute care occupational therapy in a general hospital. For 19 years, Ms. Lewis served as the supervisor of geriatric and restorative services for the department of occupational therapy at a large state mental hospital. While in this capacity, she was a member of a multi-disciplinary, community-based program that focused upon preventing institutionalization as well as serving clients within the institution. She was also responsible for developing a field-work Level II curriculum for occupational therapy students wishing to specialize in geriatrics.

Ms. Lewis has been a consultant to nursing homes, an environmental consultant in planning a new activities wing at an acute private psychiatric unit (which was part of a general hospital), and a consultant to a university-based home-care training center where she was part of a multi-disciplinary team and shared in the responsibility for the development and presentation of an intensive 15-week curriculum for home health aides.

Ms. Lewis has spent 7 years working directly with residents in subacute skilled nursing facility settings for rehabilitation companies as a full-time employee. One of these nursing homes was affiliated with an assisted living facility. She has also served as a private contractor for rehabilitation agencies and is well acquainted with the Prospective Payment System (PPS) in these settings.

For more than 10 years, Ms. Lewis has worked as a private contractor for two home health agencies (one religiously affiliated and the other hospital based). In both of these agencies Ms. Lewis has served mostly elderly clients from a variety of racial, cultural, and economic backgrounds (e.g., the inner city, the suburbs, small boroughs and villages, assisted living facilities, private one-room apartments, large estates, boarding homes, college professors, barely literate clients, and individuals who spoke no English). While working in these settings Ms. Lewis has become familiar with the PPS requirements for home health.

Ms. Lewis has lectured on topics pertaining to gerontology at a number of universities and colleges. She has also coordinated and presented at a variety of workshops and seminars to employees at institutions and community centers. Her audience has included physicians, psychologists, physical therapists, recreational therapists, social workers, occupational therapists, nurses, gerontologists, student nurses, residents, architects, lawyers, nursing home administrators, nurse’s aides, and activities workers. She has spoken at a number of multi-disciplinary conferences and has initiated several educationally oriented community projects related to the elderly.

Sandra Cutler Lewis, MFA, OTR/L, is currently working as a private contractor and a consultant devoted solely to the concerns of the late life adult.