Ethical Considerations in OT

During one of my observation sessions, I vividly remember wondering whether or not I was witnessing an ethical dilemma. A young man came in who has previously been diagnosed with a brain injury. Because he had already had extensive physical therapy, he was on the verge of being able to walk again. He had run out of his physical therapy hours, so he was seeing an occupational therapist. She used a client-centered approach to determine that it would be much more helpful to the young man to continue to work on walking. It was interesting and inspiring to see her doing what would best help her client, but I still had a nagging feeling that perhaps this could be unethical. After all, insurance was billing for occupational therapy when helping with walking was perhaps out of the occupational therapist's scope of practice. I look forward to learning more about the gray areas like this as I continue to learn more about ethics in occupational therapy.