Jobs / Healthcare / 31-2011.00
Occupational Therapy Assistants
Assist occupational therapists in providing occupational therapy treatments and procedures. May, in accordance with state laws, assist in development of treatment plans, carry out routine functions, direct activity programs, and document the progress of treatments. Generally requires formal training.
- US jobs
- 51,290
- Median wage
- $72,300 a year
- Job family
- Healthcare
Can agents do the work of occupational therapy assistants?
We read the evidence at the level of the job family, Healthcare:
- Task levelPartialOne benchmark, from early 2025. On Stanford's MedAgentBench, where agents do clinical tasks in a simulated electronic health record, the best recorded model completes 69.7% of tasks (Claude 3.5 Sonnet v2). It has no maintained leaderboard, so newer models are not measured. No benchmark in our collection tests work with patients.
- Project levelPartialOnly adjacent evidence. GDPval includes nurses among its 44 occupations. OpenAI reports that GPT-5.5's deliverables won or tied against professionals' work in 84.9% of comparisons across all occupations. No benchmark in our collection tests clinical work over days, such as managing a patient's care.
Benchmarks for the job family
These cover work in healthcare, not always this occupation's tasks.
- 1846 EloClaude Opus 5.5 (Adaptive Reasoning, Max Effort, Default Fallback) · 23 Sep 2026Unrated
Typical tasks
From O*NET 31.0. Core tasks first. Few of these tasks have a benchmark today.
- Instruct, or assist in instructing, patients and families in home programs, basic living skills, or the care and use of adaptive equipment.
- Maintain and promote a positive attitude toward clients and their treatment programs.
- Report to supervisors, verbally or in writing, on patients' progress, attitudes, and behavior.
- Implement, or assist occupational therapists with implementing, treatment plans designed to help clients function independently.
- Monitor patients' performance in therapy activities, providing encouragement.
- Observe and record patients' progress, attitudes, and behavior and maintain this information in client records.
- Select therapy activities to fit patients' needs and capabilities.
- Attend continuing education classes.
- Aid patients in dressing and grooming themselves.
- Evaluate the daily living skills or capacities of clients with physical, developmental, or mental health disabilities.
- Communicate and collaborate with other healthcare professionals involved with the care of a patient.
- Work under the direction of occupational therapists to plan, implement, or administer educational, vocational, or recreational programs that restore or enhance performance in individuals with functional impairments.
Other job titles for this occupation (21)
Acute Care Occupational Therapy Assistant (Acute Care OT Assistant) · Certified Occupational Assistant · Certified Occupational Therapist Assistant (COTA) · Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant (COTA) · Licensed Occupational Therapist Assistant (LOTA) · Licensed Occupational Therapy Assistant (LOTA) · Occupational Therapist Assistant (OTA) · Occupational Therapy Assistant (OTA) · Registered Therapist Assistant · School Based Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant (School Based COTA) · Certified Travel OTA (Certified Travel Occupational Therapist Assistant) · Home Health COTA (Home Health Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant) · Independent Living Specialist · Nursing Facility COTA (Nursing Facility Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant) · Occupational Therapy Technician · Rehabilitation Assistant · Rehabilitation COTA (Rehabilitation Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant) · Rehabilitation Therapy Technician (Rehab Therapy Tech) · School COTA (School Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant) · SNF COTA (Skilled Nursing Facility Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant) · Travel COTA (Travel Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant)