Young Occupations Unlimited: An Early Intervention Programme for Young People with Psychosis

Abstract

Early intervention and prevention in psychosis is a relatively new area of practice for clinicians working in mental health. An important task for the young person following a psychotic disorder is the redefinition of self in relation to the disorder and the development of valued social and vocational roles. Occupational therapists have developed an early psychosis intervention programme, known as the Young Occupations Unlimited programme, which aims to promote health and wellbeing by encouraging participation in a variety of self-chosen and self-satisfying occupations.

What Influences Purpose in Life in First-Episode Psychosis?

“…Participation in meaningful occupation has been shown to restore a sense of PIL among those with physical conditions (Bloom 2001, Vrkljan andMiller-Polgar 2001) and mental health difficulties, including schizophrenia (Laliberte-Rudman et al 2000, Mee and Sumsion 2001). An overview of early intervention including the role of occupational therapy has been outlined previously by Parlato et al (1999) and Lloyd et al (2000). The present results complement this work and provide further information for occupational therapists working in this field.…”

Employment and educational outcomes in early intervention programmes for early psychosis: a systematic review

“…As shown in Table 1, we identified five evaluations of early intervention programmes offering unspecified vocational services, classified as such by the absence of any clear suggestion of the intent to follow a specific vocational model (Parlato et al 1999; Garety et al 2006; Kelly et al 2009; Poon et al 2010; Abdel-Baki et al 2013). Four were rudimentary programme evaluations with results that were difficult to evaluate.…”

Work Issues for Young People with Psychosis: Barriers to Employment

“…They were registered clients of the Gold Coast Integrated Mental Health Service (IMHS). This health district was chosen as the site for the research because it is one of the few mental health services in Queensland that has a specialised early psychosis programme, known as the Young Occupations Unlimited (YOU) programme (Parlato et al 1999). This programme is for people between 18 and 25 years, recently diagnosed with psychosis, who have the goal of undertaking further education, training or work.…”