Passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in 2010 mandated reform of the United States’ existing primary care system. As part of this reform, advanced practice models, including the Patient-Centered Medical Home model, expanded, with the goal of increasing the use of interprofessional teams. Integrating occupational therapy was promoted as an opportunity to enhance the value of care provided in these redesigned primary care practices. However, occupational therapy’s presence in primary care is still extremely limited.

The purpose of this study is to understand current practice of patient education by occupational therapy practitioners who work with the geriatric population. A 30-item survey was sent to 97 practitioners in the Indianapolis area. Seventyeight (80.4%) returned the survey. Respondents reported that activities of daily living and safety were two topics taught most frequently. Verbal instructions and demonstrations were two main strategies of patient education. Clients' cognitive function was the biggest factor considered when providing written information. Most respondents used written materials developed by their facilities. Over half of the respondents perceived that clients sometimes had difficulty understanding educational content. Time constraints and limited resources of educational materials were two main barriers to patient education. The majority of practitioners reported that they needed education materials that cover the topic of safety. Further research on developing effective and efficient patient education strategies for gerontic occupational therapy practitioners is encouraged. KEYWORDS. patient education as topic, occupational therapy, agedGerontic occupational therapy practitioners specialize in providing services to meet the need of the elder population (Lewis, 2003). To mitigate chronic diseases or agerelated disabilities, gerontic occupational therapy practitioners often teach older adults new skills (e.g., energy conservation strategies and the use of assistive devices) to perform activities of daily living and instrumental activities of daily living. Patient education is a vital component to teaching these skills, and serves the purpose to empower clients to take part in intervention planning to attain and maintain desirable health outcomes. Therefore, patient education supports a clientcentered intervention approach, which is more than simply telling clients what to do. Converging studies have shown positive effects of patient education on learning skills to manage arthritis, multiple sclerosis, and low vision, and to prevent falls in