Reflections On… Occupational Therapy and Assertive Community Treatment

Abstract

Occupational therapists can play a valuable role on Assertive Community Treatment Teams (ACT). ACT is a widely disseminated, community based model of service delivery for individuals with severe psychiatric disabilities and high support needs. This paper discusses the generalist and specialist functions of occupational therapists within ACT. It is argued that occupational therapy addresses the occupational health and well being of ACT clients by intervening at three levels: the individual, the program and the community. This occupational focus is consistent with the ACT goal of enhancing community adjustment and quality of life. The paper concludes with a discussion of the opportunities and the constraints that face occupational therapists working within ACT.

A Critical Reflection on Occupational Therapy within One Assertive Community Treatment Team

“…Our findings here were similar to those of others (Krupa, Radloff-Gabriel, Whippey, & Kirsh, 2002;Townsend, 1997) who found difficulties implementing an occupation-focused, client-centred approach when the medical model guided the approach to care within a service.…”

Doing daily life: How occupational therapy can inform psychiatric rehabilitation practice.

“…For example, the Occupational Performance History Interview II (OPHI-II, Kielhofner, Mallinson, Forsyth & Lai, 2001) uses a semi-structured interview format to build relationships with people with mental health issues and their support networks to develop an understanding of the person's lived experiarticle In addition, serving as a "champion" for an occupational perspective on health may involve occupational therapists in revealing how service structures, such as resource allocation, job descriptions, and program policies can compromise occupational enablement. For example, it has been noted that occupational therapists working on Assertive Community Treatment Teams have found their ability to offer occupational interventions constrained by the priority given to generic duties focusing on illness management (Krupa, Radloff-Gabriel, Whippey & Kirsh, 2002). Likewise, Townsend's (1998) institutional ethnography of practice in Canadian Clubhouses found that despite good intentions to support real occupational opportunities, the participatory and empowering elements of such services can also be easily overruled by other routine aspects of the organization of mental health services.…”

Daily Time Use as a Measure of Community Adjustment for Persons Served By Assertive Community Treatment Teams

“…Occupational therapy has been identified as one of the professions that could fulfill a rehabilitation specialist role on an ACT team (see, for example, the Ontario Ministry of Health, 1998). There is, however, a lack of published literature that details the potential contributions of occupational therapy within the context of ACT (Krupa, Radloff-Gabriel, Whippey, & Kirsh, 2002).…”