Authors (including presenting author) :
Lo PMT, Wong KKK
Affiliation :
Occupational Therapy Department, Castle Peak Hospital
Introduction :
Not all the people with severe mental illnesses (SMIs) can recover fully. This had raised the discussion towards what it means to recover from a mental illness. It is now widely recognized that mental health recovery is more than the remission of psychiatric symptoms. Since the past two decades, there is an international paradigm shift towards the notion of recovery that recovery is viewed as ‘a way of living a satisfying, hopeful and contributing life even with limitations caused by illness’. Following the international and local shift, an Occupational Therapy (OT) recovery-oriented service framework was developed by the OT Department, Castle Peak Hospital (CPH) in 2014. This framework adopted the ten recovery principles and facilitated frontline therapists to partner with service users in formulating and attaining personalized recovery goals. However, with the proliferation of research evidences on mental health recovery worldwide and the urge for a more pragmatic framework, development of a new framework is essential.
Objectives :
This project aims to develop a recovery framework that guides the provision of occupational therapy service for patients with psychiatric conditions.
Methodology :
A group of occupational therapists in CPH conducted literature review. During the review and early conceptualization of the framework, the group identified 3 core areas to focus on: (I) revisiting the conceptualization and definition of mental health recovery, (II) incorporating stages of recovery, and (III) identifying and categorizing stage-specific OT interventions that gear towards different dimensions of recovery. To gather feedback from clinicians, the initial drafts of the framework were presented to OT representatives from CPH and the other 6 clusters since late 2020. The final version was adopted as the aligned service framework across clusters in October 2022.
Result & Outcome :
The framework incorporates the concept of stages of recovery. Using a locally validated recovery readiness assessment and behavioral indicators, service users can be triaged into each of the five recovery stages (Moratorium, Awareness, Preparation, Rebuilding and Growth). Specific intervention focus and OT programmes are listed under each stage such that therapist can partner with service users in implementing needs-driven care. The framework also specifies the outcomes and the target recovery dimensions to be achieved in each stage. To promulgate the use of the framework, a sharing session was conducted to therapists from 12 hospitals in Dec 2022. Further testing on the validity of the framework and standardization of the OT programmes across clusters are the way forward.
