FEATURE STUDENT EDUCATION
Community re-engagement for young people with acute mental health needs
Final year occupational therapy student Artemis Iordanidou shares how he recently delivered a service improvement project while on placement in a child and adolescent mental health unit
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During my third-year placement in a child and adolescent mental health unit , I worked with young people aged 11 to 18 with a range of acute mental health needs . Occupational therapists offered one-to-one therapy , as well as group work , providing educational and activity groups such as holiday groups , a skills group , a selfcare group and evening activities .
Although they ran a variety of groups on the ward on a weekly basis , there were minimal established links with community services for young people to be referred to and promote engagement in meaningful activities within a supportive environment once discharged .
Uncertainty around role expectations and boundaries between occupational therapists and social services at the unit appeared to be one of the barriers to establishing community links .
Collaboration between healthcare professionals is generally believed to yield better health services and outcomes for the populations that are served , creating a more client-centred practice ( Green and Johnson 2015 ).
I felt that on the unit , role clarity and understanding of expectations would be clarified through effective collaboration with social services to understand their remit . Barriers such as low levels of interactions , status issues , language barriers , as well as role overlap , further impacted potential collaboration , and professional identity and sense of uniqueness may be lost as a result of this ( Green and Johnson 2015 ), leaving both professions confused and unsure of role responsibilities .
Despite their limited interactions with social workers and community services on this matter , occupational therapists had already started to consider collaborating
48 OTnews December 2021