Living in a Glasshouse: Exploring Occupational Alienation

Abstract

Occupational therapy could overcome occupational alienation experienced by mental health day service clients, through the development of services within and beyond day services which promote a sense of belonging and offers meaningful occupation.

Psychiatric rehabilitation in community-based day centres: Motivation and satisfaction

“…Studies that have tried to characterize the rehabilitation provided in day centers have revealed that there are opportunities for both performing activities and socializing with others (22,23) and that different day centers, if optimally used, can build a rehabilitation chain towards increasing engagement in society (23). Researchers have also warned that day centers can counteract the intentions of supporting social integration by offering an arena that is too protected, sheltering the attendees but also preventing them from interacting with societal structures outside the day center (24,25).…”

Participation in day centres for people with psychiatric disabilities: Characteristics of occupations

“…Rebeiro (6) similarly described how the feelings of being in a safe place, of belonging and of feeling self-worth were important in order to facilitate a focus on individually matched occupations. However, research on day centres has also shown that the participants develop a dependency that may foster vulnerability and feelings of alienation from the wider society (7) and are facing a challenge with regard to community integration (4).…”

Factors influencing subjective perceptions of everyday occupations: Comparing day centre attendees with non-attendees

“…Those who do not partake in such occupations might spend more time at home and perceive and value their everyday occupations differently.. There is, however, limited research regarding how attendees experience the day centres they visit and the effect this type of rehabilitation has on people with PD (8)(9). Furthermore, a previous study could not identify any differences regarding satisfying and valued everyday occupations between a day centre group and an outpatient group without a regular daily occupation (10).…”