Saturday, June 27, 2015

Understanding The Role Of 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.

The occupation in this case means more than just work. It focuses on any activity that the client engages in in their daily activities. It means anything one does at home and in the work place. They can include simple things like the personal hygiene, cooking, socializing, managing personal finances, and even leisure painting. These and other occupations are what the therapist relies on to enhance the client ability and help them live a satisfying and a more meaningful life.

In the same way, mental health occupational therapist has to use the client-centered approach. In this way, the therapist is able to gain a deep understanding that are related to the occupation and environment and have role in the client mental health as well as their whole functioning.

The second part involves identifying the factors that form a barrier to the client functioning. These are environmental factors that are part of the work or home environment. The therapist then develops the necessary strategies to overcome these barriers. The last function is the interventions through which they offer assistance to the clients in helping them overcome the practical challenges such as the independent life skills, self-care, leisure, home maintenance, and even the fitness or medical goals through focused occupational strategies.

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 target of the this therapy in the area of mental illness specifically targets to offer a full treatment to the person as a whole. The practice is widely used in several areas of medical profession. It can be seen in settings such as hospitals, nursing facilities, outpatients, in the work places, home based health programs, and community programs. It is a beneficial practice particularly in life skill training, cognitive rehabilitation, life balance intervention, interpersonal skill training and several other areas in life.




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