Understanding Occupational Therapy In Mental Health

By Edna Booker


For a successful treatment of any mental health case, there must be collaboration between several health professionals each with distinctive roles to play. In addition to the medical professionals like the doctors, the nurses, the counselors, the social workers, and the therapists, the patient's caregivers, teachers, support providers, and aides also have a role to play. The occupational therapy in mental health is part of the collaborative process that brings other players in a collaborative approach with the purpose of reaching a specific goal of improving the client's quality of life.

The mental health occupational therapy is described as a client-centered approach that the therapists use to gain an idea of different factors that relates to the client's occupation and the environment and have an influence on their mental functioning as well as their subsequent functionality. The therapist assesses the occupation or occupations that are most meaningful to the clients.

Through this approach, the client is able to identify the most appropriate occupations and engage in them at home or at work. This in turn is important as it helps the client to regain a sense of self-esteem, achievement, and the general well-being that had been affected by injury.

The professionals in this occupation have a big role in the general medical service provision. They work together with other professionals in the medical sector to help in service delivery in a number of ways. First, they assess the client's ability to function properly. This means that the work management abilities and the ability to actively participate in the pursuit of the home roles are assessed.

The client is then helped to engage in meaningful and purposeful occupations which in turn help them to regain some sense of fulfillment, achievement, self-esteem, and wellbeing as a whole. This helps them recover what was lost through brain injury or the related illness.

The second process involves the identification of the barriers to the functioning of the client in their normal environment. This is followed by developing collaborative strategies that are designed to overcome the barriers. Lastly, the intervention stage is where the patient is assisted in overcoming the practical challenges such as the home maintenance, self-care, the independent life skills, leisure, and fitness programs among others.

In the mental occupational therapy, the target is to treat the person as a whole, whether the problems are emanating from the physical or mental health. Today, the practice can be seen in diverse settings such as the hospitals, the outpatients, intermediate care facilities, skilled nursing facilities, work place, home, and community programs among others.

The occupational therapists usually collaborate with different professionals in the health profession in order help individuals in their recovery process. In some cases, their roles may overlap with other team members. However, they provide a very unique theoretical and clinical contribution to the recovery process, and should therefore be considered as a part of an integrated and comprehensive treatment program.




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