Mentoring programmes are viable to support youth with ID during the transition to adulthood; however, refinement is required in the rollout out of a pilot intervention.

Introduction: There is a serious shortage of health professionals in rural and remote areas in Australia and world wide. The purpose of this article was to add to existing information about allied health students, particularly occupational therapy students, and rural and remote practice by reviewing the literature on occupational therapy students' perceptions of rural and remote practice. A variety of influencing factors were identified, as were the main characteristics of rural practice in relation to the future employment of students. The effect of undergraduate rural training programs on students' perceptions was identified. Literature review:The shortage of rural and remote health practitioners is well documented. Because rural and remote practice is characterised by a diversity of healthcare needs, rural health professionals need a variety of knowledge and skills. This diversity may attract rural health professionals and encourages undergraduate students to consider rural and remote practice. A student's rural background was reported to be one of the strongest factors in their decision to work rurally, and an undergraduate rural program is one useful strategy to overcome the rural health professional shortage. Undergraduate rural programs promote students' positive perceptions of rural and remote practice by exposure to a rural location, and factors such as rural fieldwork experience and fieldwork supervisors are likely to be influential. Negative influential factors include a student's desire to work as a 'specialist', and personal, social and professional factors, such as a lack of professional development opportunities in a rural setting.

Background/aim Families of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) use family routines to provide predictability and structure to support occupational engagement of their family members. Mothers assume the major role to orchestrate occupations in constructing family routines, which may impact their health and wellbeing. However, the experiences of mothers in managing family routines and their health and wellbeing have not been the main focus in previous research. Thus, this study explored the experiences of mothers of children with ASD in managing family routines and their perceptions of the impact of family routines on their health and wellbeing. Methods An interpretive phenomenological approach was used. Twenty mothers of children with ASD, aged between 28 and 56 years, participated in semi‐structured interviews. Data were transcribed verbatim and each transcript was analysed. Results Five themes that summarise mothers’ perceptions towards health and wellbeing when managing family routines emerged: (i) Keeping on track keeping healthy; (ii) My life is busy, because I do everything for everyone else; (iii) Keeping on track all the time is tiring or frustrating; (iv) Looking after my family by looking after myself; and (v) I am not perfect and it is OK. Conclusion This study highlighted the substantial efforts required in constructing family routines that may be at the cost of mothers’ health and wellbeing. However, mothers may be able to cope with everyday demands in managing family routines by changing their perspectives. By integrating ‘me‐time’ activities in family routines, mothers may be able to support their own health and wellbeing. Mothers’ values and needs are reflected in family routines; hence, thorough understanding of family routines may be a key to support mothers’ occupational engagement.