There are varying reasons you might want one over the other. If you want the most possible job opportunities, you should go with physiotherapy. There are 5 times as many as there are occupational therapists.
If you want recognition in society, physiotherapy is more readily and highly esteemed. Indeed, occupational therapists spend their lives explaining to friends, relatives and acquaintances what it is that they actually do.
All that aside, they are very different in terms of focus. Physiotherapy is most commonly addressing gross motor activities, to you will see much focus on strength, balance, and gross coordination that is commonly focused on the spine, shoulders, hips, knees and ankles.
Occupational therapy focuses more on functional activities, more closely related to cognition, communication, fine motor activities, and skills. While a physiotherapist might work on restoring gross movement, the occupational therapist will generally work at the point that the individual must interact successfully with the environment. The goal will be to restore actual function. The physiotherapist might work on restoring walking gait. The occupational therapist may be more focused on restoring the ability manipulate the environment, dress, eat, and function in specific activities. Therefore it pulls in more of the cognitive and perceptual functions, social interactions, and assistive technology.
Both areas can work with any age groups, focusing on developmental issues. While almost no longer present, there remain OT s that work in psychiatric settings.
In some areas you will see overlap. While 80% of certified hand therapists are OT’s, PT’s make up the other 20%. This is no doubt due to the fact that OT training includes the design and fabrication of orthotics.
