Terry Brittell OTA/OT Partnership Award

Spirit of the Award

This award honors true collaborative partnership between an OT and OTA, one built on role delineation, mutual respect, and shared professional responsibility. Recipients are partnerships whose combined effort produces outcomes that neither practitioner could have achieved alone, advancing practice, education, research, advocacy, or leadership through the strength of the partnership itself.

Key Definitions

OT/OTA Partnership: A collaborative intraprofessional relationship between an OT and OTA characterized by shared responsibility, mutual professional respect, communication, and role delineation.

Intraprofessional Collaboration: Collaboration between professionals within the same profession to enhance outcomes and advance practice, education, research, and advocacy.

Impact: Evidence of measurable outcomes (e.g., program outcomes, improved service delivery, dissemination, documented influence on practice/education, or recognition by peers).

Description and Purpose

• To recognize an OT and OTA who exemplify excellence in intraprofessional collaboration through a sustained, effective partnership that advances the profession.
• To honor a high-impact OT/OTA partnership that contributes meaningfully to practice, education, research, advocacy, or leadership.
• To promote and elevate best practices in OT/OTA intraprofessional collaboration.

Criteria

Nominations must address all four of the following criteria.

1. Partnership Requirement

The nomination must include one OT and one OTA working as a partnership. This award is not given to individual awardees.

2. Sustained Intraprofessional Collaboration

The nomination must demonstrate a minimum of two years of sustained collaboration characterized by role delineation, mutual respect, and shared professional responsibility.

3. Contribution to the Profession

Nominees must show evidence that their collaborative partnership has produced at least one of the following outcomes. The OT/OTA partnership itself must be the primary driver of the contribution, impact, and dissemination described.

• Development of a practice model, service delivery innovation, or method of evaluation/treatment with demonstrated impact.
• Development of an educational initiative (academic or continuing education) that promotes OT/OTA partnerships and improves practitioner development.
• Participation in research, quality improvement, or program development activities that reflect and benefit the OT/OTA partnership.
• Advocacy, leadership, or professional service activities that promote occupational therapy and demonstrate the value of the OT/OTA partnership.

4. Dissemination and Professional Influence

Nominees must provide evidence that the impact and outcomes of their partnership have been shared through at least one of the following:

• Publications (peer-reviewed or local).
• State, regional, or national presentations.
• Training programs, toolkits, or widely adopted professional resources.
• Recognized contributions through professional organizations or system-level implementation.

What Does Not Qualify Alone

An OT and OTA who work together in standard clinical roles without evidence of a distinct, documented collaborative contribution to the profession does not meet the criteria.

The nomination must demonstrate what the partnership produced beyond expected duties and that the work was the result of the partnership itself, not of either practitioner working independently. Collaboration within standard roles is insufficient unless the partnership demonstrably produced outcomes that would not have occurred without the joint collaboration.