Measuring change in activity participation of mental health care users attending an Occupational Therapy programme in Rural South Africa

Authors

Abstract

Introduction: Lack of evidence on the effect of interventions is one of the several ongoing challenges facing healthcare services in South Africa. The increasing emphasis on routine outcome measurement has urged occupational therapists to demonstrate the impact of their intervention in mental health. This study aimed to evaluate the change in activity participation of the mental health care users attending an occupational therapy programme.

Methods: A one-group pre/post-test design was used. The Activity Participation Outcome Measure (APOM) was administered to measure activity participation of 64 mental health care users. Five measurements were done between admission and follow-up after discharge.

Results: Majority of the participants were between the ages of 20 - 29 and mainly diagnosed with substance use disorders. The effect sizes, Cohen's d (> 0.80) and Cohen's r (>0.37) demonstrated a significant positive change (p=0.00) across all APOM domains during hospitalisation. An insignificant change (p> 0.05) was noted in the effect sizes during the follow-up stages with a substantial decline in some of the APOM domains indicating that patients were not well-integrated into their communities.

Conclusion: This study revealed the importance of measuring change in participation for shaping clinical practice, to ensure meaningful intervention, and successful integration of MHCUs in their communities.

KEY WORDS:

Routine outcome measurement, activity participation, occupational therapy, mental health, rural context

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Author Biographies

  • Olindah Silaule, University of the Witwatersrand

    Olindah Silaule is PhD candidate and lecturer at the Occupational Therapy Department of the University of the Witwatersrand. She obtained her master’s degree at the University of the Witwatersrand in 2017. Olindah coordinates the second year undergraduate Mental Health curriculum, involved in masters teaching and supervision. Her research interest is in the quality and efficiency of mental health services for patients and their families. Olindah’s PhD research focuses on developing guidelines for alleviating caregiver burden amongst informal caregivers of persons with severe mental disorders in Bushbuckridge, Mpumalanga Province.

  • Daleen Casteleijn, University of the Witwatersrand

    Daleen Casteleijn is a part time Associate Professor at the Occupational Therapy Department of the University of the Witwatersrand. She supervises PhD and Masters Students. She received the prestigious Vona du Toit Memorial Award in 2012 from the SA Association of Occupational Therapists and recognition for achievements in research from the Faculty of Health Sciences in August 2014. Her research focusses on the measurement of outcomes in patients after rehabilitation. She developed the Activity Participation Outcome Measure (APOM) to track change after occupational therapy intervention in several patient populations.

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Additional Files

Published

10-12-2021

Issue

Vol. 51 No. 3 (2021): South African Journal of Occupational Therapy

Section

Research Articles

How to Cite

Measuring change in activity participation of mental health care users attending an Occupational Therapy programme in Rural South Africa. (2021). South African Journal of Occupational Therapy, 51(3), 63. https://journals.assaf.org.za/index.php/sajot/article/view/19437
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