Review of the OT Goal Writing & Goal Bank Guide

If you’re an occupational therapy student or OT practitioner, you’re probably well aware of the difficulties of goal writing. Adult-based occupational therapist Mandy Chamberlain, OTR/L, knows the feeling all too well.

So she decided to create two great OT goal writing resources to help solve this problem. These resources include an all-inclusive guide (the OT Goal Writing & Goal Bank Guide for Adults), as well as an additional OT Goal Writing Workbook to complement the guide.

I was excited to score a copy of both and wanted to do a quick write-up for anyone interested in purchasing it.

Is the OT Goal Writing and Goal Bank Guide Right For You?

I want to start off by saying if you work in pediatrics, these goal writing guides are targeted to adult-based occupational therapy, and won’t be the best fit for you. If you’re looking for pediatrics goal examples, here is a helpful pediatric goal example article to check out.

Additionally, if you’re a seasoned occupational therapist who has been working in adult settings for years and you never struggle with writing goals, you likely don’t need this guide.

But if you’re an OT student who will be doing a fieldwork in basically any adult setting (SNF, acute care, inpatient rehab, home health, etc.) both of these guides will be really helpful for you.

Additionally, if you’re an adult-based OT who is a few years out of school, the guides will super helpful for you if you still struggle from time to time with goal writing. And if you’re switching settings from pediatrics to adults, definitely consider grabbing these guides as well.

I’ve personally been working as an OT for four years and sometimes have trouble with writing unique non-ADL goals, so the guide was really useful for me personally. I’m really glad a product like this has finally been created and highly recommend it for both OT students and therapists new to adult-based OT settings.

What’s Included in the OT Goal Writing & Goal Bank Guide?

The main guide is the Occupational Therapy Goal Writing and Goal Bank Guide for Adults (currently priced at $23.99). It is the larger of the two goal writing resources.

It is 60 pages and covers pretty much everything you need to know when getting started with goal writing. The goal of the guide is to “help you create measurable, client centered and attainable goals for your clients in any adult focused setting.” 

Chapters:

• OT Abbreviations
• Goal Setting Prep +Tips
• Writing COAST Goals
• COAST Goal Bank and Outcome Measure Examples
• Special Considerations for Goal Setting
• Recommended Resources

I really love that this Guide focuses on occupation-based and client-centered goal writing – crucial to show our distinct value as OTs. It also provides you with outcome measure examples for multiple types of goals.

While the whole guide is chock full of helpful goal writing tips and strategies, the Goal Bank is my personal favorite aspect of this guide. It includes both short term and long term goals for BADLs, IADLs, and specialized areas including dementia, low vision, maintenance therapy, progressive diseases, and chronic conditions.

It’s so helpful when you’re stuck during goal writing and need some quality examples to refer to when creating your patients’ own goals. I really wish this guide existed as a new grad and when I was in fieldwork.

I also found the Special Considerations section really helpful for those more challenging out-of-the box goals that aren’t the usual cut and dry ADL goals. This section covers goal setting for patients with progressive diseases and for maintenance therapy, including goals for contractures, positioning, joint mobility/ROM, deconditioning and positioning. This section is really terrific for SNF and ALF-based OTs especially, since these are some of the hardest goals to write (in my experience!).

What Does the Goal Writing Workbook Include?

The supplemental Goal Writing Workbook (currently $7.99) is meant to be an additional resource to the above Goal Writing Guide.

It’s 14 pages and contains the following sections to help you work through your own goal writing:

• Choosing Difficult Goals
• Occupations/Performance Components
• Outcome Measures
• COAST Goals

Each section has a Goal Organizer to take you through the step by step process of COAST goal writing.

Consider Getting Both Products in a Bundle

The OT Goal Writing Guide & Goal Bank and the Goal Writing Workbook are currently sold separately if you just want one or the other. You can certainly benefit from just the Occupational Therapy Goal Writing Workbook.

However, if you want to really maximize your goal writing potential, the additional Goal Writing workbook will further help you work through the goal writing process.

If you’re interested in both Goal Writing products, they currently cost $31.98 when purchased together.

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I really hope you found this review of the OT Goal Writing & Goal Bank Guide helpful! If you’ve ever questioned your goal writing skills, I believe that both the Goal Writing Guide and Goal Writing Workbook will be great resources for you.

If you have any additional questions, feel free to ask away in the comments below or get in touch with Mandy directly at mchamberlain@seniorsflourish.com. Best of luck with your goal writing journey 🙂