News
Dr. Patricia J. Precin Receives Recognition of Achievement Award from American Occupational Therapy Association
OT Professor Acknowledged for Her Years of Dedication to Mental Health Practice
New York, N.Y. - Dr. Patricia J. Precin, Asst. Prof. of Occupational Therapy at Touro College School of Health Sciences in New York City, was presented with the Recognition of Achievement Award from the American Occupational Therapy Association. The Award recognizes occupational therapy (OT) practitioners who have made notable contributions to the profession and its consumers in a focused area of OT practice.
An accomplished clinician, researcher, guest speaker, and author, Dr. Precin has devoted her 28-year career to pioneering new practices in mental health through rehabilitative occupational therapies that include disaster intervention, welfare-to-work programs, homelessness, foster care, and substance abuse. Mental health is one of the four main practice areas of OT [the others are physical disability, pediatrics, and geriatrics] which assists clients with day-to-day activities such as employment, social skills, and managing medications− activities that for those with mental illness can be difficult.
“As OT's for people with mental and emotional challenges, we apply occupational science to maximize or maintain a level of function −with respect to their roles and goals in life− the same as we would for people with physical disabilities,” said Prof. Precin.
Prof. Precin implemented and oversees cognitive, geriatric, and psychiatric fieldwork placement that she developed for her Touro students; under her supervision, over 100 of Touro’s OT student interns have had their clinical experience. She is recognized as a pioneer in treating dual symptoms of substance abuse and mental illness and was executive director of The Fostering Connection, managing director of Pathways to Housing, and director of St. Luke’s/Roosevelt Hospital’s Occupational, Recreational, and Creative Arts Therapies.
Prof. Precin is the author of Living Skills Recovery Workbook, Client-Centered Reasoning: Narratives of People with Mental Illness, Surviving 9/11 and Healing 9/11 and was the editor of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Work. She has been a guest speaker at international conferences and was the recipient of the Award of Excellence in Research from the New York Institute of Technology.
Stephanie J. Dapice Wong, Associate Prof., Chair, and Director of the Occupational Therapy Program at Touro was pleased that Dr. Patricia Precin is being recognized “for her consistent and dynamic achievements in mental health practice.”
“I am honored to receive this award,” said Prof. Precin, “because it acknowledges the progress I have made in fields that had not previously employed OT’s. I have been able to bring this experience to the classroom as well as to non-conventional and otherwise unavailable fieldwork sites.”
