Our group had the opportunity to practice three different assessments.
The first assessment was the Role Checklist
Pros: This assessment was really positive for the client in that it allowed him to talk about the roles that he valued. By getting him to fill out what roles were important to him, and then asking open ended questions, the client felt comfortable expanding on his ideas and the student OT's knew what areas to probe further.
Cons: As a self report measure, it didn't tell us much about what the client was actually doing. I would be hesitant to only assess using this checklist, because I would feel like I needed more information about what he currently doing, what he has done, and what he would like to do.
The second assessment was the Interest Checklist
Pros: This assessment had an extensive list of interests in which the client could indicate what his current and past interest levels were in.
Cons: This assessment was long and didn't allow for a lot of discussion. The client was asked to fill it out, which took him a while to read through all the items. The client felt that many of the items didn't apply to him and he seemed to become agitated by the form of questioning, especially because this questionnaire likely pointed out much of the things that the client wasn't interested in.
The third assessment was the Engagement in Meaningful Activities Survey (EMAS)
Pros: This assessment had a smaller list of paper-and-pen items to be filled out, and also had a section in which the student OT asked open ended questions to probe further and generate discussion. It asked about satisfaction levels, which was able to gauge his occupational experience.
Cons: This client indicated very low satisfaction for many of the occupations that we asked about. When we went to ask the open ended questions, it was hard to find content to talk about because it asked him to list 3 things, which he wasn't able to provide.
Questions from EMAS:
1. Could you tell me how you normally spend your days from the time you get up to the time you go to bed?
2. Are there other activities that you do only sometimes that you have not yet mentioned e.g. programs, special events?
3. Which of these activities make you feel good about yourself? Choose the top 3.
Overall, I found this experience to be informative and engaging. I got to see first hand the lived experience of someone who has problems with affect, motivation, mood, and finding meaningful occupation. I can understand how the OT demands are different when working with a client with mental health issues.
I visited the CAOT website to read more about their approach to mental health, and enjoyed reading through their introduction to OT and mental health practice.
http://www.caot.ca/default.asp?pageid=3627
Seemingly with the P-E-O Model, they indicated that the role of an OT is to help 1) learn new strategies for doing things and 2) making changes to the environment to promote occupational performance and experience
CAOT Position Statement: http://www.caot.ca/default.asp?pageid=1290
"Occupational therapy values are consistent with a recovery-oriented philosophy of service provision that focuses on engagement in "meaningful community lives in spite of the presence of intermittent or even pervasive and continuous mental illness" (Krupa & Clark, 2004, p. 69). Occupational therapy research also contributes to evidence of the relationship between participation in meaningful occupations and mental health and well-being (Krupa & Clark, 2004). "
