Who would suit a referral to an Occupational Therapist?
An adult if they show signs of, or report, any of the following:










An inability to function within their work, home, social or recreational environments
Disinterest in managing their self care
Reduced coping with ordinary occupations at work or home
Reliance upon alcohol to sleep
Delayed sleep onset and/or frequent waking during the night
Apathy towards engaging in usual activities
Avoidance of friends and family, preferring to stay at home
Not able to self organise
Inability to perform usual roles at work and/or home
Loss of role
Children/ Adolescent
 Difficulties with motor control, hand-to-eye coordination, body awareness and sensory
processing (including the ability to modulate emotions and behaviours)
 An inability to manage day-to-day living skills, such as eating, writing, interacting with other
children and playground skills
 An inability to function appropriately with in a classroom
 An inability to regulate and modulate emotional responses when appropriate
 Poor self-esteem
 Poor communication skills
 An inability to interact with peers
 Difficulty with sensory processing – such as being over- or under- responsive to stimulation
(noise, touch, movement, visual input etc) and finding it difficult to achieve a calm state.
What is Occupational Therapy?
Occupational Therapy is a profession concerned with promoting health and wellbeing through
occupation. Occupations are the everyday meaningful activities that people engage in or occupy
themselves in.
The primary goal of Occupational Therapy is to identify a person’s strengths and barriers to
functioning and in turn enable people to participate in necessary and desired activities
(occupations) and fulfill life roles. Occupational Therapists are registered health professionals, with
an interest in improving the functional abilities of their clients (clients includes adults/ children
and adolescents).
Mental Health Occupational Therapy is a client-centered approach to gaining an understanding of
the various factors relating to a person’s occupations (occupation as referred to here relates to
tasks) and environment that influence the mental health and subsequent functioning of that
client.
Mental Health Occupational Therapy assesses which occupations are most meaningful to their
clients. This approach enables the client to identify and engage in occupations in both work and
home settings. Engagement in meaningful and purposeful occupations contributes to the client
regaining a sense of achievement, self-esteem and well being that may have been affected by
their injury/illness.
Mental Health Occupational Therapists work alongside other health professionals and service
providers to deliver services in the following ways:



Assessment of functional ability which involves assessing the client’s ability to manage
work and home roles and participate actively in these pursuits.
Identification of barriers to a client’s functioning within their usual environments (work/
study and/or home) and developing collaborative strategies to overcome these barriers. In
children and adolescents OT promotes normal development and stimulates learning to
improve the child/adolescents quality of life by helping them to participate in play,
preschool, school and home activities.
Interventions to assist clients to overcome practical challenges including independent life
skills/ self management, leisure and health/ social /fitness goals using focused occupational
strategies. The treatment process uses activity scheduling, programming tasks, routine
planning and skills development. This includes learning about anxiety, stress and sleep
management, as well as concepts such as self esteem, anger management and assertive
communication. Identified functioning requiring attention will be addressed with
particular focus on their affect on the following skills:
Productivity Skills empower the client to practice and develop skills that enable
them to engage in work or participate in study or schooling.
 Self maintenance facilitates enhancement of the client’s independence in
managing daily tasks and the prevention of relapse.
 Leisure and recreation skills provide opportunities for the client to engage in a
range of options to develop interests that they can undertake independently in the
community.
 Social skills underpin the client’s ability to progress in all of the above areas and
provides increased confidence to relate with others effectively in a range of settings

References:

Based on Natalie Bottroff & Associates Pty Ltd. Back on Track Mental Health Occupational Therapy

Kielhofner, G (Ed) (1985). A model of Human Occupation: Theory and Application. Williams & Wilkins, Sydney.

Ranka, J & Chapparao, C (1996). “PRPP Research: Training Manual CPE edition 2.0” University of Sydney, Sydney

Dunn, W, Borwn, C, McGuigan, A (1994). “The Ecology of Human Performance: A framework for considering the Effect of Context” The
American Journal of Occupational Therapy Vol 48(7): 595-607.