Outcomes of the Active in My Home (AiMH) intervention for people with psychiatric disabilities in supported housing: A longitudinal pilot and feasibility study

Abstract

Introduction

Facilitating occupational engagement in residents with psychiatric disabilities living in supported housing is important, because meaningful occupation is closely related to wellbeing. The aim was to explore whether residents taking part in the intervention Active in My Home (AiMH) made any changes in activity and recovery from baseline to completed AiMH; whether satisfaction with AiMH was related to any changes; and if changes between baseline and completed AiMH were stable at follow-up.

Method

AiMH consists of eight sessions for residents and includes workshops for staff. This no-control study involved seven supported housing units and 29 residents who took part in data collection at the start and completion of AiMH and at follow-up after 6–9 months. Outcomes concerned occupational engagement, the unit’s provision of meaningful activity, personal recovery, psychosocial functioning and symptom severity.

Findings

Improvements occurred in the AiMH participants’ occupational engagement (Z = −2.63, p = 0.008) and personal recovery (Z = −1.98, p = 0.048) from start to completion of AiMH. The improvement on occupational engagement was stable at follow-up (Z = −3.01, p = 0.005), when also psychosocial functioning (Z = −2.39, p = 0.017) and psychiatric symptoms (Z = −2.42, p = 0.016) had improved.

Conclusion

This study could not show whether the improvements were due to AiMH or other factors. The findings are still promising, however, and encourage further development and testing of AiMH.