Date Presented 04/19/21
The Let's Get Organized Swedish Part 1 pilot study demonstrated feasibility for use in psychiatric and habilitation outpatient services. Participants engaged in a 10-week group module consisting of 1.5-hour sessions per week. Each session had a common structure but a separate theme. The goals were to use an appointment book and cognitive strategies for managing time. This study used OT standardized assessments to measure the intervention results, which were promising.
Primary Author and Speaker: Suzanne Marie White
Contributing Authors: Kerry Ramella, Jyothi Gupta
PURPOSE: Human occupation takes place in a context in which time is a consideration. Time provides a rhythm and an organizational structure to performance patterns. Time management skills are important in order to establish or maintain occupational balance. To manage time satisfactorily executive functions are needed to organize, schedule, and prioritize occupations. Good time management is positively associated with good health, high job satisfaction and manageable stress. New health behaviors to prevent and manage chronic conditions need to be integrated into daily occupations. Reallocation of time or learning new cognitive strategies to preform previous routine task needs to be addressed. This research examines to what extent Let's Get Organized (LGO-S) enhances time management skills, aspects of executive function and satisfaction in daily occupations in people with time management difficulties because of neurodevelopmental or mental disorders.
DESIGN: One-group pretest-posttest design with 3-month follow-up. The participants in this study were recruited from Swedish psychiatric and habilitation outpatient services. Inclusion criteria confirmed or suspected diagnosis: Mental disorders, such as psychosis or affective disorder Neurodevelopmental disorders such as ASD or ADHD Literate (absence of intellectual disability) Self-reported difficulties in time management which negatively affected function in daily occupations.
METHOD: Data was collected by trained OTs at three separate points in time; pre- and post-interventions and a three months post intervention. The Assessment of Time Management-Swedish (ATMS-S) was collected on all three occasions. The Weekly Calendar Planning Activity (WCPA-SE) and Satisfaction with Daily Occupations (SDO-13) were collected by pre- and post-interventions. The pre-intervention demographic data collection was also included in the study-specific questionnaire. The pre- and post-intervention scores for all measures and the 3-month follow-up ATMS-S scores were compared with the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. The significance level was set at < 0.05. All calculations were performed using IBM SPSS Statistics version 24.
RESULTS: A sample of 55 participants displayed significant improvement in time management, organization and planning skills, and emotional regulation, as well as satisfaction with daily occupations. Aspects of executive functioning were partially improved. The ATMS-S results were stable between post-intervention and the 3-month follow-up, further strengthening our results and the hypothesis that the sustained improvement was caused by the LGO intervention. The WCPA-SE, after the intervention, showed that there was a significant improvement in the number of correctly entered appointments, which, in our view is the most important result of the WCPA as it demonstrates the goals of LGO which was to use a calendar. The SDO-13 showed the number of activities performed increased significantly from 7.3 to 8.3 (p = 0.001) from pre- to post-intervention. In addition, the mean satisfaction with included activities increased from 54.9 to 61.1 (p < 0.001).
CONCLUSION: The results show that the LGO-S Part 1 is a promising intervention with the potential to enhance time management skills. The LGO-S can build cognitive strategy use and satisfaction with daily occupations and should be investigated further in a randomized trial. The used instruments appear to be sensitive enough to capture change from the intervention.
References
Holmefur, M., Roshanay, A., Lidström-Holmqvist, K., Arvidsson, P., White, S., & Janeslätt, G. (August 2019) Pilot study of the -œLet’s get organized--a group intervention for improving time management. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 73, 7305205020. https://doi.org/10.5014/ajot.2019.032631
Janeslätt, G., Lidström Holmqvist, K., Holmefur, M., & White, S. (Sept 7, 2017) Assessment of Time Management Skills: psychometric properties of the Swedish version. Swedish Occupational Therapy Journal, 1-9. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/11038128.2017.1375009
Lidström-Holmqvist, K., Holmefur, M., & Arvidsson, P., (February 2019). Test-retest reliability of the Swedish version of the Weekly Calendar Planning Activity- a performance-based test of executive functioning. Disabil Rehabil. 20:1-6. dio.10.1080/09638288.2019.1568590
Eklund, M., & Gunnarsson, A. B. (2007). Satisfaction With Daily Occupations: Construct validity and test–retest reliability of a screening tool for people with mental health disorders. Australian Occupational Therapy Journal, 54, 59–65. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1440-1630.2006.00586.x
