Enabling Occupations 3: Mental Health Across the Life Span

What you’ll be able to do

• Analyze and evaluate the effects of disease processes including heritable diseases, genetic conditions, mental illness, disability, trauma, and injury on occupational performance.

• Utilize clinical reasoning to facilitate occupation-based interventions that address client factors. This must include interventions focused on promotion, compensation, adaptation, and prevention.

• Evaluate client(s)’ occupational performance, including occupational profile, by analyzing and selecting standardized and non-standardized screenings and assessment tools to determine the need for occupational therapy intervention(s). Assessment methods must take into consideration cultural and contextual factors of the client. Interpret evaluation findings of occupational performance and participation deficits to develop occupation-based intervention plans and strategies. Intervention plans and strategies must be client centered, culturally relevant, reflective of current occupational therapy practice, and based on available evidence.

• Demonstrate, evaluate, and plan the consultative process with persons, groups, programs, organizations, or communities in collaboration with inter- and intra-professional colleagues

• Evaluate and discuss mechanisms for referring clients to specialists both internal and external to the profession, including community agencies

• Demonstrate activity analysis in areas of occupation, performance skills, performance patterns, context(s) and environments, and client factors to formulate the intervention plan.

• Demonstrate clinical reasoning to evaluate, analyze, diagnose, and provide occupation-based interventions to address client factors, performance patterns, and performance skills.

• Select and apply assessment tools, considering client needs, and cultural and contextual factors. Administer selected standardized and non-standardized assessments using appropriate procedures and protocols. Interpret the results based on psychometric properties of tests considering factors that might bias assessment results (e.g., culture and disability status related to the person and context).

• Recommend and provide direct interventions and procedures to persons, groups, and populations to enhance safety, health and wellness, and performance in occupations. This must include the ability to select and deliver occupations and activities, preparatory methods and tasks (including therapeutic exercise), education and training, and advocacy

• Demonstrate knowledge of the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) Occupational Therapy Code of Ethics and AOTA Standards of Practice and use them as a guide for ethical decision making in professional interactions, client interventions, employment settings, and when confronted with personal and organizational ethical conflicts.

• Demonstrate, evaluate, and plan the consultative process with persons, groups, programs, organizations, or communities in collaboration with inter- and intra- professional colleagues.

• Design and implement intervention strategies to remediate and/or compensate for functional cognitive deficits, visual deficits, and psychosocial and behavioral health deficits that affect occupational performance.

Source: UW Guide