An OT Exploring Mental Health: Week 3- Psychoemotional Health through Activity

In this lab, we were introduced to Action Over Inertia, which was exciting because the authors of this book happen to be the instructors of our class! This is a resource for mental health practitioners who work with clients with serious mental illness. The focus of the lab today was to:

Explore benefits of occupation
Explore dimensions of activity engagement
Practice using a case application, Dr. John Nash (from 'A Beautiful Mind')

For this lab we began to discuss the importance of meaning and motivation behind activity. We discussed how meaningful occupations promote health and well being.

This comes as no surprise to me. Personally, I feel that the activities I participate in each day help define who I am, keep structure to my day, get me to communicate with others, and allows me to learn and interact with my environment. I can't imagine what it would be like to be unable to (or be unable to want) to participate in activities every day!

It was fun to fill in the worksheets asking us about the activities we like to do and the meaning they have for us. It really helped me to understand the angle that an occupational therapist might take with a client when first working with them and establishing the therapeutic relationship.When I filled out a worksheet titled 'Finding meaning in my activities', I found that almost every activity was very important to me; when we rated our current activity patterns, I learned that one area I could improve on is the balance in my life!

The activity with Dr. John Nash involved playing a video clip of his time short after being released from hospital following an episode of psychosis. We filled in a table to illustrate his current activity patterns. I found it very helpful in organizing the information to understand why there was an imbalance.

Action over Inertia

Following the class, I went to the library to borrow a copy of Action over Inertia. After looking through the content of the book, I understand how it could be used as an effective tool with clients with serious mental illness. The worksheets are engaging, easy to understand, client centred, and occupation-based. I enjoyed reading Resource 3.1 "Some ideas for 'quick activity changes'". In fact, I could probably do some of these activities to make myself feel better each day!

How I use Activity to promote mental Health