Fay­ola K J Fras­er

Oc­cu­pa­tion­al Ther­a­py (OT) Week, cel­e­brat­ed from No­vem­ber 3–9, 2025, is a time ded­i­cat­ed to ho­n­our­ing the vi­tal role that oc­cu­pa­tion­al ther­a­pists play in help­ing peo­ple of all ages live fuller, more in­de­pen­dent, and mean­ing­ful lives.

The 2025 theme high­lights how oc­cu­pa­tion­al ther­a­pists help in­di­vid­u­als stay well and avoid crises by pro­vid­ing time­ly sup­port. OT Week al­so rais­es aware­ness about how the pro­fes­sion em­pow­ers peo­ple to over­come phys­i­cal, men­tal, or so­cial chal­lenges that af­fect their dai­ly lives. Through ad­vo­ca­cy, ed­u­ca­tion, and sto­ry­telling, the week shines a light on the every­day ac­tiv­i­ties that give life pur­pose and cel­e­brates the ther­a­pists who help oth­ers live to their fullest po­ten­tial.

One such ther­a­pist is Dr Tara Ri­ley, a Trinida­di­an oc­cu­pa­tion­al ther­a­pist nom­i­nat­ed by the Trinidad and To­ba­go Oc­cu­pa­tion­al Ther­a­py As­so­ci­a­tion for Ex­cel­lence in Clin­i­cal Prac­tice and Ex­cel­lence in Oc­cu­pa­tion­al Ther­a­py Ed­u­ca­tion. Re­flect­ing on more than a decade in the field, Dr Ri­ley de­scribes her jour­ney as a call­ing—one shaped by cre­ativ­i­ty, com­pas­sion, and ded­i­ca­tion to help­ing peo­ple reach their high­est po­ten­tial.

An alum­na of St Joseph’s Con­vent, Port-of-Spain, Dr Ri­ley re­calls her ear­ly in­tro­duc­tion to oc­cu­pa­tion­al ther­a­py dur­ing her teenage years. Ini­tial­ly drawn to the med­ical field but wary of its pres­sures—burnout and lim­it­ed fam­i­ly time—her per­spec­tive shift­ed when OT Les­ley Gar­cia vis­it­ed her school in Form Four to speak about the pro­fes­sion and its ethos of im­prov­ing clients’ in­de­pen­dence.

“I was im­me­di­ate­ly in­ter­est­ed,” she re­calls. “Af­ter that speech, I nev­er re­al­ly looked back. I kept my eyes on the prize, and all of my ed­u­ca­tion­al choic­es were geared to­ward achiev­ing my Mas­ter’s.”

Af­ter earn­ing a Bach­e­lor’s in Health Sci­ence from the Uni­ver­si­ty of West­ern On­tario, she pur­sued a Mas­ter of Sci­ence in Oc­cu­pa­tion­al Ther­a­py at Flori­da In­ter­na­tion­al Uni­ver­si­ty. Her aca­d­e­m­ic jour­ney cul­mi­nat­ed in a Doc­tor­ate in Health Sci­ence from No­va South­east­ern Uni­ver­si­ty in 2020, where she de­vel­oped a spe­cial in­ter­est in glob­al health. To­day, she stands as one of Trinidad and To­ba­go’s lead­ing voic­es in oc­cu­pa­tion­al ther­a­py—a field she de­scribes as “the job of liv­ing and the joy of liv­ing.”

Dr Ri­ley be­gan her ca­reer in the Unit­ed States, work­ing for a year be­fore re­turn­ing home to Trinidad. Her first lo­cal post was with the Caribbean Kids and Fam­i­lies Ther­a­py Or­gan­i­sa­tion (CK­FTO), work­ing in pae­di­atrics—not by ini­tial choice, but be­cause there was such great need in the area.

“I nev­er imag­ined my­self work­ing in pae­di­atrics,” she ad­mits. “I main­tained prac­tice with adults for about a year be­fore go­ing all in for peds. I love work­ing with par­ents, sib­lings, and fam­i­lies, and see­ing the growth and change that hap­pens for the en­tire fam­i­ly unit, not just the client.”

What be­gan as a prac­ti­cal de­ci­sion soon evolved in­to a pas­sion that de­fines her life’s work.

For those un­fa­mil­iar with the field, Dr Ri­ley is quick to clar­i­fy one of the biggest mis­con­cep­tions about OT. “I al­ways say oc­cu­pa­tion­al ther­a­py is poor­ly named be­cause peo­ple as­so­ciate the word ‘oc­cu­pa­tion’ with a job,” she ex­plains. “We ac­tu­al­ly fo­cus on help­ing peo­ple do the every­day things that give their lives mean­ing—ac­tiv­i­ties that may be tak­en away or need adap­ta­tion due to health con­di­tions, men­tal ill­ness, or phys­i­cal loss.”

OTs, she says, help bridge de­vel­op­men­tal, men­tal, phys­i­cal, and so­cial gaps that act as bar­ri­ers to in­de­pen­dence. Out­comes can be life-chang­ing, though of­ten un­der-ap­pre­ci­at­ed—from help­ing some­one eat in­de­pen­dent­ly af­ter a spinal cord in­jury to as­sist­ing a per­son with limb loss learn to write again, or help­ing a Parkin­son’s pa­tient main­tain the abil­i­ty to sign their name.

In her pae­di­atric prac­tice, this mis­sion takes on spe­cial mean­ing. She fo­cus­es on help­ing chil­dren play, learn, and grow with­in their fam­i­ly units. “There’s no black-and-white path to suc­cess,” she re­flects. “Chil­dren may need a va­ri­ety of in­ter­ven­tions, and my job is to re­main flex­i­ble and cre­ative in de­sign­ing them.”

De­spite its im­por­tance, oc­cu­pa­tion­al ther­a­py re­mains un­der-rep­re­sent­ed in Trinidad and To­ba­go. “When I re­turned in 2014, there were on­ly 16 oc­cu­pa­tion­al ther­a­pists in the coun­try,” Dr Ri­ley notes. “Now the T&T OT As­so­ci­a­tion has over 52 mem­bers,” thanks in part to the in­tro­duc­tion of the Caribbean’s first Mas­ter’s pro­gramme at the Uni­ver­si­ty of the South­ern Caribbean.

How­ev­er, she points out that many ther­a­pists re­main in the pri­vate sec­tor be­cause of lim­it­ed op­por­tu­ni­ties and out­dat­ed re­mu­ner­a­tion in the pub­lic sys­tem. She con­tin­ues to ad­vo­cate for the in­te­gra­tion of OTs in­to re­gion­al health au­thor­i­ties, pub­lic schools, care homes, and vo­ca­tion­al in­sti­tu­tions. “OT forms the ba­sis of best-prac­tice re­ha­bil­i­ta­tive care for a wide range of con­di­tions,” she says. “If our uni­ver­sal health sys­tem lacks ac­cess to it, we are sim­ply not of­fer­ing gold-stan­dard care.”

Al­though she is now one of the coun­try’s most promi­nent OTs, Dr Ri­ley con­tin­ues to face chal­lenges—es­pe­cial­ly as a small busi­ness own­er. Open­ing her own clin­ic in 2023 was, she says, “a re­al­ly ex­cit­ing and ful­fill­ing change.” Her prac­tice, The Palm House, lo­cat­ed in St James, blends health sci­ence with busi­ness man­age­ment. The clin­ic al­so hous­es a child psy­chol­o­gist and of­fers space for men­tor­ing ther­a­pists—re­flect­ing her be­lief in holis­tic, in­ter­dis­ci­pli­nary care.

Run­ning a clin­ic has al­so deep­ened her sense of pur­pose, though not with­out dif­fi­cul­ty. “Mak­ing a liv­ing wage and main­tain­ing my busi­ness while of­fer­ing ser­vices to those who need it most is a huge eth­i­cal dilem­ma,” she ad­mits. Her so­lu­tion has been to give back cre­ative­ly—through board ser­vice for char­i­ties, sub­si­dized train­ing pro­grammes, and part­ner­ships such as her col­lab­o­ra­tion with Ari­ma Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal, of­fer­ing work­shops and small-group ses­sions for chil­dren in de­vel­op­men­tal care.

Dr Ri­ley’s ca­reer is marked by many mile­stones: lead­ing teacher train­ing ses­sions for the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion ear­ly in her ca­reer, earn­ing cer­ti­fi­ca­tion as a Func­tion­al Ca­pac­i­ty Eval­u­a­tor while liv­ing in Bar­ba­dos, com­plet­ing her doc­tor­ate in 2020, and lec­tur­ing at the Uni­ver­si­ty of the South­ern Caribbean.

Re­flect­ing on her jour­ney, she em­bod­ies the re­silience and pas­sion of a care­giv­er. From cu­ri­ous teenag­er to doc­tor­al grad­u­ate and en­tre­pre­neur, her sto­ry is one of pur­pose, deep­en­ing and evolv­ing through prac­tice.

“OT is about help­ing peo­ple reimag­ine what’s pos­si­ble,” she says. “It’s about hope, heal­ing, and find­ing joy in the small vic­to­ries.”