Occupation or Therapy? The Attitudes of Mental Health Professionals

Kaur, Daljeet; Seager, Martin; Orrell, Martin

doi:10.1177/030802269605900707

Cited by 12 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…With the shift to community-based care, there is an emphasis on teamwork and an interdisciplinary perspective. Concerns have been raised in the occupational therapy literature about the blurring of roles and lack of understanding about the functions of occupational therapy in community mental health (Kaur et al, 1996;Taylor and Rubin, 1999). Leonard and Corr (1998) found that lack of professional identity and low status of the profession were stressors for newly qualified occupational therapists.…”

Section: Professional Rolementioning

confidence: 99%

Work‐related stress and occupational therapy

Lloyd

King

2001

Occupation Therapy Intl

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Occupational stress and burnout have been studied extensively in the human services. It has been suggested that healthcare professionals in particular are at risk of stress owing to the caring nature of their work. Articles related to occupational therapy and work-related stress were reviewed in regard to practice in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States and Sweden. Although the empirical literature is relatively weak for occupational therapy, it has been argued that occupational therapists in health care share risk factors with other healthcare professionals. These risk factors include repeated exposure to distress and difficult behaviour, prolonged interventions and uncertain outcome. Issues such as professional status, staffing issues and the nature of the profession have been identified as additional risk factors for occupational therapists. However, empirical studies that enable burnout rates of occupational therapists to be compared with those of related occupational groups suggest that this may not be the case. Occupational therapists may in fact be protected from some stress and burnout factors. Further research is recommended to clarify the nature of stress experienced by occupational therapists and to identify both risk and protective factors characteristic of the profession.

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Section: Professional Rolementioning

confidence: 99%

Work‐related stress and occupational therapy

Lloyd

King

2001

Occupation Therapy Intl

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“…Again this scale and study could provide the basis for further study. Kaur et al (1996) also studied the attitudes of mental health professionals about occupational therapy and found that there was a blurring of roles with other professions. Many staff were able to recognise the main functions of occupational therapy but lacked confidence in this and did not fully utilise their knowledge in practice.…”

Section: Role and Attitudesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Occupational Therapy in Mental Health: A Review of the Literature

Craik¹

1998

British Journal of Occupational Therapy

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This review of the literature was conducted as part of the development of a position paper on the way ahead for research, education and practice in occupational therapy in mental health. It included publications over the past decade and concentrated on the British Journal of Occupational Therapy. Recognising experience from other countries would be beneficial, aspects of the literature from the National Journals in American, Canada and Australia which were most relevant to practice in the UK were included. The shortage of articles on mental health was conspicuous and their diverse topics and descriptive nature were notable. In the UK literature, the clinical subjects featured most often were dementia, work rehabilitation, community mental health and forensic psychiatry, with other subjects either appearing infrequently or not being included. The literature from the other countries also explored new roles for occupational therapy, reflecting the changes in the delivery of mental health services.In the American Journal of Occupational Therapy there was concern about the declining number of occupational therapists working in mental health. The review identified major themes in the literature and posed questions for education, research and practice in occupational therapy and formed the foundation for the position paper.

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“…A number of authors have identified issues that could negatively influence mental health occupational therapy recruitment and retention in UK. These include: (i) the generic emphasis of the work (Cook, 2003); (ii) the lack of a uniform definition of occupational therapy (Taylor & Rubin, 1999), and ‘role blurring’ with other professions (Kaur, Seager & Orrell, 1996); (iii) ‘high levels of stress and burnout’ (Edwards & Burnard, 2003, p. 346); and (iv) inadequate levels of professional supervision (Craik, Austin & Schell, 1999).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%