College celebrates new program

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. — High demand for occupational therapy assistants has drawn Suzanne Kraus 105 miles from home three days a week.

Kraus, of Taylor, is one of 17 students in the inaugural occupational therapy assistant program at Central Community College. She attends classes in Grand Island on Tuesdays and Thursdays and has an elective class in Hastings on Monday nights.

Taylor said she believes the career change will open doors for her. She is a licensed practical nurse and was teaching in Kearney when she met a woman from Ord who is the only occupational therapy assistant in an eight-county area. Seeing a high demand for the assistants, Kraus decided to go back to school.

On Wednesday, she celebrated that decision and helped show off the classrooms where the courses are taught.

“It's a broad area,” she said. “I'm not sure where I'll end up.”

She is scheduled to graduate in spring 2011 after a year of courses and one-year, community-based internship.

The program began in August after a federal grant was secured to remodel space at the school's Center for Industry and Technology. The facility includes a pediatric setting, treatment room, mock apartment and classrooms.

Katherine McLean, clinical coordinator at Mary Lanning Behavior Services in Hastings, attended Wednesday's open house. She said people tend to think of occupational therapy as applying only to employment.

However, it actually refers to the things that occupy a person's day and life. With children, for example, that may mean playing with toys, she said.

Occupational therapists and their assistants treat people with injuries, physical and mental disabilities, and developmental delays that affect their ability to get through a day, she said. Certified assistants can work with both children and adults.

Deb Brennan, the college's executive vice president, said the program is proof that dreams can come true. That dream began in 2006, when she sat down with a local occupational therapist and a St. Francis Medical Center employee who told her of the need for occupational therapy assistants.

Valerie DeJonge, an occupational therapist at Mary Lanning Behavior Services in Hastings, welcomes the new program.

She said they tried hire an occupational therapy assistant a few years ago, but the position was open for six months before it was filled with someone from a different discipline.

This new program will help meet the needs of the smaller communities in the state, she said.

Nicole Morton of Aurora changed her major from the radiology field after seeing occupational therapists at work at the Grand Island Veterans Home.

“Luckily, some of my credits transferred,” she said with a smile.

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