What occupational therapists can do to eliminate racial barriers to health care access.

Now is the time for the American Occupational Therapy Foundation and individual institutions of higher education that house occupational therapy programs to step into the leadership vacuum created by this issue. We must not only design new minority scholarships programs, but also be prepared to defend existing ones. Given the current confusion and fluctuations of opinion on this issue, what is policy now may not be policy after the next presidential election. The Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs of the AMA has recommended recruiting minority students, procuring greater scholarship assistance, and pursuing affirmative action in school admission and faculty hiring as strategies for eradicating racial barriers to equal access to health care. As an allied medical profession, we must follow the Council's lead.