This manual is for occupational therapists (and really any healthcare service provider) and introduces the initiative, Embracing Neurodivergent Occupations, a knowledge translation tool. The mission of the toolkit is to support the utilization of best practices by occupational therapy practitioners supporting neurodivergent children and youth. Best practices for supporting the neurodiversity community can be defined as supports and services strategies that incorporate the following characteristics: a) trauma-informed, b) strengths-based, c) anti-racist, and d) principles of disability justice. Autistic and neurodivergent individuals have been incorporated throughout the creation of this program to maximize the empowerment of autistic and neurodivergent lived experiences.

The proposed program, Embracing Neurodivergent Occupations, aims to answer this call. Embracing Neurodivergent Occupations is a knowledge translation tool with foundations resting in tenets of disability justice, community-defined evidence practice, and lived-experience informed practice. The program intends to be an example of community-based participatory research (CBPR), with the program’s creation incorporating neurodivergent OTPs, scholars, and advocates from around the world for a holistic view on neurodivergent ways of living. Components of Embracing Neurodivergent Occupations will include: (a) the first neurodiversity-affirming occupational therapy model (EMPOWER Model), (b) conversations on models of disablement and rehabilitation, (c) health and well-being priorities designated by autistic individuals, (d) steps for completing neurodiversity-affirming evaluations, (e) neurodiversity-affirming service and practitioner characteristics, and (f) a grading of commonly utilized occupational therapy programs and resources and their level of being neurodiversity-affirming. Feel free to peruse the manual, and begin to apply concepts that resonate with you!