Occupational therapy as a group activity.

Abstract

With the modern trend towards a more hopeful attitude for the treatment of the Mental Hospital patient through the team approach, it seems that the time is ripe to take stock of occupational therapy programmes at present available and to see how these may be modified to fit into the total treatment programme. Numbers of trained occupational • therapists are woefully short in the face of the number of positions available. Programmes based on paying their way are common, leading to patients who are good craftsmen, spending long hours using their skill in producing articles for sale. Little thought seems to be given to the possible harmful effects of such activities. One example of such a patient will suffice. A male patient, skilled at making rag rugs spent years ensconced in front of his rug frame in a corner of the O.T. Department with his back turned to all the other patients. In this situation he turned out rug after rug, all of which were rapidly sold. Apparently no thought was given to the effect of this routinized activity which rapidly became part of his total adjustment pattern while at the same time preventing any increased interaction with his environment and any possibility of increasing the efficiency of his adjustment. When enquiring about this situation, I was informed that the patient became very angry when disturbed. What seemed to have been forgotten was that no patient can improve his adjustment without some manifestations of tension or anxiety, for no change of adjustment is necessary in their absence. As in the case of many other patients, this man's adjustment was adequate for the situation in which he found himself, an adjustment that was being supported by occupational therapy which at the same time prevented any further improvement in that adjustment.