Mental Health Occupational Therapy

This article briefly reviews the history of ideas and practice in psychosocial occupational therapy. It then reports the results of two studies which examined present-day perspectives as reflected in occupational therapy literature and the actural practices of psychosocial therapists. The first study was based on a review of mental health-related articles in AJOT and OTMH; the second represented secondary analyses of a survey of psychosocial occupational therapists. The findings of both studies suggest that psychosocial occupational therapists have not adopted a single theoretical orientation in their practice.