Occupational Therapy in Mental Health

Most occupational therapists in the United States work in physical rehab settings, pediatric/school settings, or geriatric care settings. Less than 5% work in mental health directly. However, occupational therapy began in psychiatric hospitals around the time of World War I when practitioners realized that participation in meaningful activities and occupations facilitated healing (see a history of OT here).

Often, there are misunderstandings around the role of occupational therapists in mental health treatment. This is understandable, because the field is broad and there aren't a many OTs practicing in mental health, but some do! There is a wealth of evidence and history involving occupation and activity-based mental health treatment. For some overviews of what occupational therapy can do with mental health treatment, click here, here, and here. Additionally, the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) has a few resources explaining what we do as well; here and here.

Occupational therapy is not a simple, easily classifiable field. We are often lumped in with physical therapists because of the overlap between our fields, but that doesn't even come close to what we are trained to do. My own personal simple explainer for occupational therapy is that we treat dysfunction with occupation and activity.

We treat dysfunction. What kind of dysfunction? Pretty much all of it! It is normal to see an occupational therapist in a rehab clinic treating someone after hand surgery so that they can participate in cooking and self-care activities again. If a mental health diagnoses is examined under the same lens, an individual with severe depression may struggle to complete household management tasks or self cares, and an occupational therapist can help to develop the skills and strategies to do just that.

As time goes on I will continue to post evidence and information on this page pertaining to occupational therapy in mental health. So check in once in a while to see if there's anything new!

For my doctoral project, I completed a research study examining gaps and barriers to treatment in Natrona County, Wyoming. In this I also compiled a significant amount of information about occupational therapy intervention in mental health as well as evidence backing it. You can read the project in it's entirety below!