In May 2023, many members of the Manitoba Health Professional Associations Coalition (MHPAC) collectively wrote a letter to leaders of each major political party in Manitoba with a request for each party’s responses to five specific healthcare-focused questions as a starting point to inform the members of each of our professional associations. Below you will find links to the original letter, and responses from each provincial political party. You are invited to use these as a launching point to discuss with your candidates, and you may wish to use the information to guide your decision on election day in October 2023.

• Original letter from MHPAC to Political party leaders

Responses below (listed in alphabetical order):

• Response from Conservative Party
• Response from Green Party
• Response from Liberal Party
• Response from New Democratic Party (NDP)

In 2021, one of the actions the Manitoba Society of Occupational Therapists has taken in response to the Calls to Action from the Truth & Reconciliation Commission involved being a community partner with student Occupational Therapists in their final year of the Master of Occupational Therapy program at the University of Manitoba to create a resource to support Occupational Therapists on their journey of reconciliation.

YOU can take action towards reconciliation: Explore this incredibly comprehensive document that includes self-reflection, information about Indigenous Peoples in Manitoba, concepts & recommendations to support culturally safer practices and resources to explore.

Please explore, use and share the “Enhancing Cultural Humility & Culturally Safer Practices for Indigenous Clients in Occupational Therapy“.

MSOT members can also access the newest resources to support OT’s in ensuring safe(r) practices. Both resources include a reflexive workbook, resources, and video sharing the development of the resource as a community partner of occupational therapy students in their final year.

• Gender Diversity Resource
• Anti-Racist Workbook & Resources

In addition, MSOT members can access ALL past speaker series on the professional development member page. Check out the incredible resources MSOT has to support YOU in your professional development today and into the future!

On November 2 2021, the University of Manitoba Faculty Association (UMFA) commenced a strike.  Here you will find the letter of support for UMFA that MSOT has sent to the Premier of Manitoba, Minister of Advanced Education and University of Manitoba Administrators.  High quality and responsive health-care that will flourish requires retaining exceptional faculty to teach and support the training of exceptional healthcare professionals.

As occupational therapy becomes better known and valued by health care consumers, many Manitobans are disappointed to find that that their extended health insurance plans provide limited coverage for occupational therapy services.

YOU can take action to encourage coverage for OT services: Write to your insurance company, your employer, your HR department or your union (i.e. work who are in charge of arranging and/or negotiating the extended health benefit packages) to ask them to include access to occupational therapists as part of their benefit plan and/or flex plan offerings.

The Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists (CAOT) developed four letters which are intended as templates and may be changed to for your specific needs and requirements.  Use this link to access the letter templates for your use.

MSOT would like to hear about your efforts and successes regarding coverage for occupational therapy services through private health insurance. Please contact us at msot@msot.mb.ca to let us know.

The Advocacy Toolkit was developed to assist you to build relationships and connect with important audiences that can be influential in decision-making about our issues.  This toolkit was intended to make the call, letter or visit to your Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) an easy step to take. The contents of the toolkit will be useful to facilitate connecting with any influential decision-maker, such as hospital administrators, program directors, local health advocacy organizations, or your City Councillors, etc.  The toolkit is available in the Member Portal for MSOT members (just login for access).

The Manitoba Society of Occupational Therapists has been actively advocating for Occupational Therapists working in schools.

MSOT submitted a formal brief as part of the Education Review in 2019 which can be found HERE, and presented along with the Manitoba Network of School Occupational Therapists and Physiotherapists to the Education Commission in June 2019.

In 2021, in response to the proposed changes to education in Manitoba (Bill 64), MSOT has submitted THIS LETTER to the Education Transformation team as well as all political parties with an invitation for our involvement in consultation.

The Winnipeg School Division threatened to cut Occupational Therapy services in 2019 and in 2021. Below you will find MSOT’s advocacy letters highlighting the value and importance of Occupational Therapy for school-age children.

• 2021 WSD Budget Letter – Advocacy for OT Services
• 2019 WSD Budget Letter – Advocacy for OT Services

For the past few years, MSOT has been connecting with health care unions in Manitoba to support the voice of Occupational Therapists. These advocacy efforts are on-going.

For many advocacy resources related to union bargaining (including a comprehensive report submitted in 2020 with MSOT member priorities such as wages gained from a survey to OTs around the province with nearly 200 responses!), please click here. If you have additional questions or comments please reach out the the MSOT Office any time.

MSOT was invited to share a presentation to members of provincial parliament, and respond to questions regarding Bill 213, The Allied Healthcare Professionals Recognition Week Act. The MSOT presentation was well received, and was one of the presentations that moved forward this Act.

In 2018, the Bill was proclaimed, and now the week of May 14 each year is Allied Healthcare Professionals Recognition Week.

In Spring 2017, emergency room wait times were being highlighted as a significant issue for Manitoban, including CBC recently reported that for the fifth consecutive year, a Winnipeg hospital has claimed the unsavoury title of having the longest emergency room wait times in Canada (http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/winnipeg-er-wait-times-still-worst-in-canada-1.3873571).

MSOT was able to secure a meeting with the provincial Health Minister at the time with a letter highlighting research article indicates that Occupational Therapy (OT) was the only category where additional spending at a statistically significant association with lower 30 day readmissionrates (Rogers, Bai, Lavin & Anderson (2016). Medical Care Research & Review, 1-19). You will find the letter and visual representation of the research right HERE.

In the summer of 2017, the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority (WRHA) announced a number of cuts to both outpatient Occupational Therapy services, and cutting the regional Occupational Therapy director position.  MSOT responded quickly with letters to government, WRHA, and media outlets.

• 2017 WRHA Cuts – Advocacy letter
• CBC News article, “Association decries WRHA move to axe occupational therapy director”

To celebrate OT month in October 2017 and 2018, MSOT had promotional advertisements on bus benches throughout the city of Winnipeg to promote Occupational Therapy throughout Manitoba’s largest city!