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I've been trying to google and compare the two, but the more I look, the more they look like the same job, except occupational therapists get paid a little more.
OT is generally done for rehab. Medical. SW is not medical at all. The only overlap is working with the public. With social work the main focus is more community based, not medical, usually not clinical (unless LCSW). As suggested you really should look again.
An OT helps people with physical limitations regain their ability to do the most basic of life skills - brushing their teeth, getting dressed, washing dishes, taking a shower. The goal is enabling the patient to be able to live some semblance of a normal life after a physical/medical hardship.
Social workers help people in rough situations find resources that can help them. Their clients may be impoverished, in abusive situations, or suffering from addiction or mental illness. The SW provides counseling as well as identifies resources within the local community (counseling services, shelters, etc) that can provide aid.
Watch a some career overview videos on YouTube about these careers. Google "career overview occupational therapist," for instance.
Main differences I see are that as an OC you work with someone's body. You may have to do toileting. (You likely won't have to has a physical therapist or PTA). As a social worker you work for the government and it is more if a sitting/desk job and is quite paperwork heavy. You will likely meet clients onsite or if they come to your location, though. Since you will likely be working for the government, you will likely be assigned to help immigrants/invaders who come to you country, whether or not you really want to do so. They are assigned to your caseload. OC is part of the healthcare field; SW is not.
They aren't anything alike. I'm an OT. I work in a nursing home rehab department. We have to lift people, teach them how to get dressed again after a hip fracture, teach them to be able to step over the tub to take a shower, build up standing tolerance so they can cook a meal when they get home, work on strengthening, and teach compensatory techniques and how to properly use equipment, as well as train family members how to transfer the patient and care for them.
Social workers do not do any rehab. They plan discharges, set up the home care services, deal with insurance, problem solve when we get a patient who doesn't have a safe place to go home to, deal with telling family members and patients when rehab feels the person isn't mobile enough to go home, help families apply for Medicaid if their loved one has to stay long term, things like that. They also deal with day to day issues, such as a patient complaining about a theft, or a roommate who keeps the room too cold.
It can often be very stressful, as family members get upset when patient's get cut from therapy and the family doesn't think they're ready to go home yet, and we have also had instances where we felt a patient's spouse might be abusive, which would be the social worker's domain to deal with. There can be a lot of conflict.
So physically OT is much more demanding, and it's also a "dirty hands" type job, when we take patient's to the bathroom during therapy, we often have to clean them up. Social workers are hands-off. Our social worker is at her desk doing paperwork for the most part when she's not in meetings.
In my experience, therapy of any type is much better paying than social work, and there are more jobs. We have one social worker in the home where I work, but have 4 OT's and 3 OT assistants (2 year degree) full time, and several other part-timers who work weekends or help when we're busy. On the other hand, you could do social work much longer, while at 55 I don't know how much longer I can lift obese people.
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