AOTA has
commissioned
literature
reviews
into
occupation
and
serious
mental
illness
to
provide
evidence
for
practice,
as
occupational
therapy
in the
USA in
mental
health
is not
well
established.
Studies
which
were at
level 3
or above
on the
hierarchy
of
evidence
were
included,
so all
qualitative
evidence
was
ignored.
There
was one
review
on
education
and
work,
and the
other on
community
reintegration.
Both
teams
involved
librarians
to
conduct
the
database
searching
and
students
to
conduct
the
reviews
for
their
Masters
degrees.
There
was
strong
evidence
for
Individual
Placement
Support
and
“manual
driven
interventions”
in
activities
of daily
living,
social
skills
combined
with
work
rehab
and
cognitive
training
combined
with
work
rehab.
For
community
reintegration,
34
studies
were
directly
supportive
of OT, 3
supportive
of
OT-related
work and
6
inconclusive.
One
particular
difficulty
was how
OT was
defined
for the
purpose
of
comparison
with
other
interventions,
and the
absence
of
long-term
follow-up.
Here
in the
UK we
have so
much to
offer
our US
colleagues
and this
presentation
highlighted
the
importance
of
publishing
our work
for
international
audiences.
