During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, health care practitioners’ primary focus has been on its physical consequences. Yet, the emotional strain of the pandemic exposed the mental health needs of survivors and society as a result of forced changes in occupational choices, habits, and roles. These forced changes caused a collective confusion, fear, loss, and grief. This column focuses on occupational therapy’s critical contributions to supporting society’s mental health and wellness. Occupational therapy has a unique opportunity to provide interventions to address population-wide mental health and wellness, targeted prevention of mental health concerns for people at risk, and intensive intervention for people with COVID-19–induced mental health diagnoses.

Occupational therapy’s focus on functional cognition offers a distinct approach to the assessment of and intervention for occupational performance deficits that may follow coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Although the majority of people survive COVID-19, many people experience persistent functional cognitive sequelae severe enough to interfere with occupational performance. After COVID-19, people may be categorized as either (1) those who experience severe or critical illness requiring hospitalization or (2) those with mild to moderate presentations of the virus without hospitalization. A third group of those who do not have ongoing signs of active infection but who experience new, lasting, or deteriorating symptoms has begun to emerge and may represent a distinct COVID-19 long-haul syndrome. By following the Occupational Therapy Practice Framework and using established processes for occupational therapy assessment and treatment of functional cognition, occupational therapy practitioners can tailor assessments and interventions to meet clients’ needs.

This special issue of the American Journal of Occupational Therapy highlights the contribution of occupational therapy practitioners to the care of clients during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The case studies and articles exemplify the resilience of practitioners and the importance of occupational therapy interventions in addressing the physical, cognitive, psychological, and social needs of clients, their families, and care providers. We encourage practitioners to be inventive, to be collaborative, and to contribute to research regarding the benefits of occupational therapy for this population.