The Balance of Occupation-Focused and Generic Tasks within a Mental Health and Learning Disability Occupational Therapy Service

Abstract

A service-wide audit was conducted (audit 1, 2002) to ascertain the balance of occupation-focused versus generic tasks being undertaken by occupational therapists. This identified that 66% of all tasks were occupation focused, whereas only 41% of all assessments could be described as such. Recommendations were pursued to implement occupation-focused assessments. Audit 2 (2005) showed that the majority of assessments were occupation focused (61%), and audits 3 (2006) and 4 (2007) indicated that this increase was maintained. Audit 4 also demonstrated the negative impact of care coordination duties on an occupational therapist's ability to complete occupation-focused assessments.