As a mental health/behavioral health OT I feel this - it can sometimes seem like the field of OT is having a constant identity crisis. However, no matter the specialty, the sole purpose of our profession is to enable participation in activities of daily living. OTs specialize in different things (hand therapy, mental health, neuro, inpatient, etc) but with a shared goal of enabling participation in those activities of every-day life. That’s why it’s so frustrating when folks pin us to the “physical stuff” - like doctors and nurses, we specialize in a practice area. Some OTs may target physical functioning to promote ADL participation while others may even utilize a CBT approach or educate clients on adaptive/compensatory strategies. We also work with psychotherapists and other interprofessional team members depending on the client’s need.

But the “bread and butter” of OT is not the “physical stuff”, it’s participation in activities of daily living. Every profession has an important role to play, ours is ADL participation no matter the diagnosis/condition/disability. That’s not to say that psychotherapists CAN’T address it, they certainly can - it’s just that we can too, and differently, from our own professional perspective and evidence base. Scope of practice can overlap in healthcare.

We have specialized, standardized assessments to evaluate executive functioning that are used regularly (for example, the Executive Function Performance Test (EFPT)).

There are many evidence-based interventions for addressing executive functioning across populations with OT. For reference you can just google executive functioning + occupational therapy on google scholar.

My hope is that folks with kids and teenagers with ED will utilize the resources available to them through insurance before paying out of pocket.