AOTA staff visit rehabilitation department at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center

AOTA staff with Col. Enrique Smith-Forbes, Chief of OT Service at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center

AOTA staff recently visited the Department of Rehabilitation at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center as guests of AOTA member Army Col. Enrique Smith-Forbes, Phd, OTR/L, CHT, Chief of Occupational Therapy Service. Staff saw occupational therapy and physical therapy practitioners in action as well as the therapy facilities available to Walter Reed patients which include a therapy pool, kitchen, and on-site prosthetic lab where customized prosthetics are made for patients by a certified orthotist and prosthetist. The Walter Reed occupational therapy unit is one of the largest in the nation.

Col. Smith-Forbes also explained how the military has updated its policies over time to encourage soldiers to seek out behavioral health services and described his previous work providing such services to soldiers in Iraq. He said two key changes involved not treating soldiers strictly like patients and shifting from using the term “mental health” to “behavioral health.”

According to Col. Smith-Forbes, in addition to the President of the United States visiting the hospital for care, Walter Reed takes patients who are on active duty from all military branches, as well as veterans, family members, and certain patients designated by the Secretary of War, such as victims of the Boston Marathon bombing. He shared one success story of a quadruple amputee who was wounded in Iraq and received arm transplants at Walter Reed.

We salute Col. Smith-Forbes for his and his colleagues’ many years of service to the nation and his exceptional work providing occupational therapy services to current and former members of the military and their families.