Abstract
Mental health care has been shifting from treating mental illness to health promotion. Occupational therapists aligned with the new paradigm can include leisure in their recovery-oriented interventions helping mental health patients live a meaningful and satisfactory life. The aim of this paper is to determine the common perceptions of leisure among occupational therapists who practice in mental health settings, and to understand how they implement leisure as an intervention when working with individuals with severe mental health disorders. A qualitative methodology was used to explore Occupational Therapy perceptions of leisure. Through snowball sampling 5 occupational therapists from a metropolitan city in the Midwest of the United States of America to complete a semi-structured interview were recruited. American Occupational Therapy Association Practice Framework (3rd edition) guided the thematic analysis. Three themes emerged, including Concepts of Leisure, Occupations, and Leisure as Therapy. Theme definitions, examples and implications are discussed. Although occupational therapy practitioners in mental health consider leisure important, it is underutilized in their interventions. The professional’s perspectives of leisure influences how they include it in their practice.
Highlights
The Center for Disease Control reports more than 50% of Americans will experience mental illness at some point in their lifetime (Kessler et al, 2012) and 1 in 25 Americans live with a serious mental illness such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or major depression (Merikangas et al, 2010)
The remaining four mental health occupational therapists were not interviewed due to three contributing factors: The authors believed saturation had been met, the occupational therapists were from the same or similar work settings, and the COVID-19 pandemic created a barrier for in-person interviewing
All participants interviewed were female, aged 28 to 64 years old at the time of interview, and all were full-time occupational therapists who worked in mental health with varied leisure experiences in their personal and professional lives
Summary
The Center for Disease Control reports more than 50% of Americans will experience mental illness at some point in their lifetime (Kessler et al, 2012) and 1 in 25 Americans live with a serious mental illness such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or major depression (Merikangas et al, 2010). To facilitate inclusion of individuals with mental health needs into the community, countries have been encouraged to have their mental health national plans transition from psychiatric institutions to community-based services to provide care and promote recovery, based on individuals and communities’ human rights and for their participation in decision making (World Health Organization, 2013). This ethical conduct goes along with practices oriented by the Recovery Model
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