North Carolina § 90-270 - 66. Declaration of purpose.

§ 90-270. 66. Declaration of purpose.

The North Carolina Occupational Therapy Practice Act is enacted to safeguard the public health, safety and welfare, to protect the public from being harmed by unqualified persons, to assure the highest degree of professional services and conduct on the part of occupational therapists and occupational therapy assistants, to provide for the establishment of licensure requirements, and to insure the availability of occupational therapy services of high quality to persons in need of such services. It is the purpose of this Article to provide for the regulation of persons offering occupational therapy services to the public. History (1983 (Reg. Sess., 1984), c. 1073, s. 1; 2005-432, s. 1.) Editor's Note. - Session Laws 2005-432, s. 16, provides: "All members serving on the North Carolina Board of Occupational Therapy on the effective date of this act [September 22, 2005] shall complete their current terms. Upon completion of their current terms, the occupational therapist members shall serve one additional term of either three or four years as follows: the occupational therapist member who served the longest may serve an additional three-year term; the other two occupational therapist members, the occupational therapy assistant member, and the physician member shall be eligible to serve one additional four-year term. The Governor shall appoint a new public member to serve a four-year term. The Governor shall also appoint the counselor, educator, or school-based professional member for a four-year term pursuant to G.S. 90-270.68(a)(4) , as enacted in Section 4 of this act, to begin October 1, 2005. Members appointed thereafter shall serve four-year terms." Effect of Amendments. - Session Laws 2005-432, s. 1, effective September 22, 2005, in the first sentence, substituted "services" for "care", "therapy" for "therapist", and "licensure requirements" for "standards of education."