What is mental health occupational therapy?

“What does an occupational therapist do?”

“It’s pretty rare for an OT to work in mental health right?”

“So how does an OT work in mental health…what do you do?”

We thought it was best to birth our new educational blog series with this pertinent topic, given these questions are some of the most common asked of a mental health occupational therapist (OT), which is surprising considering the origins of our profession are actually rooted in mental health! So, to begin with, it is important to understand the role of an OT. One of the most well-rounded definitions of occupational therapy comes from the World Federation of Occupational Therapists (WFOT):

‘Occupational therapy is a client-centred health profession concerned with promoting health and wellbeing through occupation. The primary goal of occupational therapy is to enable people to participate in the activities of everyday life. Occupational therapists achieve this outcome by working with people and communities to enhance their ability to engage in the occupations they want to, need to, or are expected to do, or by modifying the occupation or the environment to better support their occupational engagement.’[1]

The term ‘occupation’ is what confuses most people, as it is often considered only as ‘paid employment’. In our profession, ‘occupation’ refers to every single task or activity that a person needs to do, wants to do, or is expected to do within their everyday life. 

Once you see that occupation means all daily activity, you’re off to a good start in understanding the role of an OT and the diverse and incredible role we have within all healthcare settings and clinical areas.

OT’s form part of allied health teams in most healthcare settings and in all clinical areas, and also work extensively in private practice. Allied health refers to a broad group of professions such as OT, Psychologists, Physiotherapists, Speech Pathologists, Social Workers and Dietitians. Luna Therapy is considered a private practice, and we provide mental health occupational therapy services in a mobile community outreach model – in simple terms, we meet with our clients in a location they choose, whether that be at home, the beach or a café for example, to provide assessment and intervention. Psychologists, and appropriately trained OT’s and Social Workers are allied health professionals with experience in assessing, managing and treating people experiencing mental illness. You may notice a lot of overlap within our roles in mental health, and we also bring our profession-specific training to our roles as mental health clinicians. It is so important to find the right therapist for you, one you click with, as this is critical in shaping your recovery experience. An interdisciplinary approach, where your therapists all work together in a collaborative way, is the gold standard; however this is not always available in community and private sector healthcare as it is in hospital settings. 

Mental health illness, also known as psychosocial disability, is one of the leading causes of disability in the world. A huge challenge within the mental health space, is that unfortunately mental health illnesses are still not well understood by the wider community and are often met with prejudice, judgement and misunderstanding. We are incredibly passionate about supporting our clients who experience mental illness, as we fully understand just how devastating the impact can be on their lives and the lives of their families. 

OT’s are vital to supporting clients with mental health illness develop the skills needed to live life to the fullest. If you’ve ever experienced a mental health illness, or know someone who has, you no doubt understand the profound and catastrophic impact it can have on a person’s ability to do the things they want and need to do. Mental illness can make it really hard to live life on your own terms, and deeply disrupts daily life roles and activities, development, learning, work and relationships. 

OT’s provide client-centred and evidence-based assessment and intervention using many different approaches to support people in managing the varying stages of their mental illness, as mental health symptoms range in acuity, intensity, stabilisation and periods of wellness. The assessment process is important in order for the OT to accurately understand the client’s functional, sensory, cognitive and mental health challenges and the functional impact of these factors. We then establish what the client’s goals are, and work through them in the client’s priority order using a vast variety of evidence-based interventions and psychological support. Some examples of the intervention support mental health OT’s offer people include, but are not limited to, symptom management, life skills development, risk/crisis planning, establishing routines for daily activities, sleep hygiene, exercise and self-care, engaging with relevant daily activities such as cooking, cleaning, grocery shopping etc, psychoeducation (education programs to address anger, stress, assertiveness, social and interpersonal skills, self awareness and role development such as parenting), sensory modulation (changing how you feel through using your senses), emotional regulation, managing cognitive difficulties, fatigue management, engaging in relationships, accessing the community, managing work and study, and engaging in meaningful activities or hobbies. Mental health OT support is provided in one-on-one, family and group settings. OT’s promote wellness. OT’s focus on the remediation and restoration of skills and modifying the clients environments and activities, with assistive technology often used as another intervention modality. The support is entirely unique for each client, and family members benefit greatly from OT also as they learn to adapt to the stress of caregiving whilst also maintaining engagement in productive and meaningful activities within their own lives.

Every mental health OT brings a unique approach to the role based on their own professional and life experiences, in the same way that every architect has unique design style. The core principles and tools of the profession are the same, yet they are applied in different and unique ways. OT’s all aspire to the same goal of supporting our clients to live the life they want to live, one meaningful occupation at a time. 

At Luna Therapy, we apply an integrative and practical approach that thrives on the genuine depth and trust we create within all our therapeutic relationships. It is important to us that we truly get to know our clients, hear their story and provide pillars of practical and sustainable hope and healing. We believe in empowering our clients, so they get to truly grow and get to know themselves through the challenges of their disability and unique experience of their recovery. We believe in the philosophy of a recovery model. We believe that through meaningful occupation and self-discovery, a person can truly heal. We believe in supporting people to go back-to-basics with lifestyle and routines. We believe in holistic healthcare. We believe in evidence-based practice. We believe in trauma informed care. We believe in the mind-body connection, and that the body innately knows how to heal itself if we create the right environments and opportunities and tune in to trusting what it is communicating to us. We believe that no two people are the same and that all people have an innate purpose that is waiting to be discovered. We believe that in order for a person to heal and grow, that they need to be truly seen, heard and accepted.

Think of an OT as helping you with the practical and functional aspects of your life. An important part of our role is to provide psychoeducation (education to help you understand and manage your mental illness and symptoms) and psychological counselling support, however what sets us apart from other therapeutic support is that we are also hands-on creative and intuitive problem solvers. We work with you in the context of your own home and community to work out what matters to you, what you are having difficulty with and what you want to do about it – and then we utilise our holistic training, skills and evidence-based approaches to support you with your recovery back to yourself. The benefit of us working with you in your own home or location of choice, is that skills and learning are applied in real time and are relevant and contextual. 

There is an extensive range of medical, therapeutic and complementary therapy services available to support a person experiencing mental illness and psychosocial disability. Once a person chooses to seek support, finding the right healthcare providers is so important, however this can often be an overwhelming process. It is so important for mental illness to be normalised and spoken about with the same importance that stroke, cancer or physical injury/illness is spoken about within families and communities, as it is not feasible for a person to navigate recovery alone amidst discrimination and misunderstanding. If you are reading this, make it your business to level-up your awareness and learning about mental illness and psychosocial disability through the websites listed below. Given the current mental health statistics, every person will either experience or have someone close to them experience mental health illness multiple times in their lifetime. 

Mental health OT’s are just one therapeutic support option for people to try as they navigate the challenges of a psychosocial disability. Every person deserves to be empowered with the right information about the range of support services available to them and supported to try different therapeutic supports and approaches until they find the right fit for them. Despite the challenges within the mental health system in Australia, which we are not expanding on in this post, we truly believe that there is hope for all people to access the right supports that they need for their unique mental health experience. A huge part of this is everyone doing their bit to learn and talk about mental illness, understand the roles of different mental healthcare professionals and check in with friends, family and colleagues regularly. 

Recovery in the context of mental illness and psychosocial disability refers to the unique experiences of people as they learn to navigate and manage their symptoms. The recovery model identifies that recovery means different things to different people, that recovery is much more than achieving the absence of symptoms, and it acknowledges that recovery is a long-term process with the ultimate goal being full participation in society engaging in meaningful and productive life roles. A beautiful definition of recovery in the context of mental illness is ‘…a way of living a satisfying, hopeful and contributing life even with the limitations caused by illness. Recovery involves the development of new meaning and purpose in one’s life as one grows beyond the catastrophic effects of mental illness.’[2]

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Some options for seeking mental health support:

  • Talk to someone in your life you feel comfortable with, and share your experience, they can then assist you with accessing professional support

  • Better Access to Mental Health (BAMH) – book in a long consultation with your GP to get started by completing a Mental Health Care Plan (MHCP), this scheme provides Medicare rebates for mental health allied health professional services, up to 10 individual sessions and 10 group sessions per calendar year  

  • Private pay therapy services – you may have to pay out of pocket to get immediate help, or use private health funding (PHF) to cover a gap fee if you have the right level of PHF 

  • Telephone counselling support services, varying availability times of these services, further details on websites – Lifeline Australia 13 11 14, Beyondblue 1300 22 4636, Mensline Australia 1300 78 99 78, Kids Help Line 1800 55 1800, Suicide Callback Service 1300 659 467 1300 659 467, PANDA 1300 726 306

  • NDIS – although it is frustratingly challenging to access the NDIS with psychosocial disability, it is absolutely worth it once you are accepted into the scheme. Make sure you have a good support team to assist with this application process, and take it step by step

  • Mental health crisis support – dial 000, Lifeline 13 11 14 or get to the nearest emergency department 

Time to level-up your mental health knowledge! Below are links to some of the many incredible organisations who provide extensive education, support and advocacy of mental health:

[1] https://www.wfot.org/resources/definitions-of-occupational-therapy-from-member-organisations

[2] Anthony WA. Recovery from mental illness: the guiding vision of the mental health service system in the 1990s. Psychosocial Rehabilitation Journal 1993; 16.

Laura Kaganmental health, occupational therapy, occupational therapist, mental illness, psychology, mindfulness, mental wellbeing, allied healthComment