Individual Members

WFOT advocates for the human right to participate in chosen meaningful occupations and represents the profession in its role of improving world health and wellbeing. A WFOT Individual Membership subscription provides personal benefits that also contribute to the advancement of the profession globally. Your subscription:

• Ensures professional representation at key international stakeholder events and initiatives that progress the relevance of occupational therapy at a global level.

• Provides occupational therapy expertise to inform and influence international policy and strategy development at a health systems level.

• Ensures the WFOT’s official status with the United Nations and World Health Organization is maintained, enabling collaboration across a range of international and regional workplans including Disability and Rehabilitation, Mental Health and Human Resources.

• Enables the interaction and representation of national occupational therapy associations at a global meeting to strategise, govern and lead the Federation.

• Provides resources to develop global strategies to increase occupational therapy human resources, evidence informed practice, quality education provision and research priorities.

• Maintains and publishes the Minimum Standards for the Education of Occupational Therapists, an internationally recognised benchmark for occupational therapy education.

• Implements the WFOT approval and reapproval process for occupational therapy education programmes and maintains the database of over 2000 education programmes globally.

• Publishes timely Position Statements and Public Responses to critical issues to support advocacy and occupational therapy.

• Develops innovative free online learning resources to advance practice and facilitate knowledge translation to the occupational therapy community.

• Provides dedicated interactive forums and websites to enable engagement with the profession globally.

• Maintains a social media presence to communicate with the profession and other stakeholder groups.

• Hosts World Occupational Therapy Day each year, producing themed promotional materials and resources.

• Coordinates the translation of publications into a range of languages to increase accessibility and dissemination.

• Creates a network of Individual Members with the option of being contacted about international projects that match your expertise and interest.

• Provides eligibility to Individual Members to apply for dedicated research funding.

• Provides a WFOT Individual Membership Certificate to provide evidence of your membership and contribution to WFOT and the international occupational therapy community.

• Enables the production of a twice-yearly international professional journal - the WFOT Bulletin, Individual Members can access all issues dating back to 1979.

• Supports and maintains the WFOT website with resources and information, including Individual Member Only access to additional benefits.

• Provides a monthly electronic newsletter to keep informed of the latest WFOT developments and initiatives.

• Enables an International Congress to take place every four years, with discounted rates for Members.

WHO IS ELIGIBLE TO BE AN INDIVIDUAL MEMBER?

Professional occupational therapists, student occupational therapists and occupational therapy assistants who are members of their national association are eligible to apply for WFOT Individual Membership.

HOW DO I BECOME A MEMBER?

To become an individual member of the WFOT you must first be a member of a professional occupational therapy association that is a Member Organisation of the WFOT (List of WFOT Member Organisations). In some associations, members are also WFOT Individual members automatically. In others, members need to specifically purchase WFOT Individual Membership through their association.

Please visit the to List of WFOT Member Organisations to check if you are a WFOT Individual Member automatically through your association or whether you need to purchase WFOT Individual Membership separately through your association.

If you were educated in a country that is different to the one you are currently working in, it should still be possible for you to become an Individual Member of WFOT. Either contact the national association of the country you are currently working in or the national association of the country that you were educated in.