Date of Defense
12-1-2024
Date of Graduation
4-2025
Department
Occupational Therapy
First Advisor
Kim Ganzevoort
Second Advisor
Tracy Young
Abstract
As a student in the WMU OTA Bachelor's of Science program, I completed a baccalaureate project. I chose to advocate for the role of occupational therapy in traditional mental health settings. I chose this topic as I have had several close loved ones struggle with mental health, and I wanted to push my learning of occupational therapy's role in this setting further. Upon choosing my topic, I learned although occupational therapy initially started in mental health aiding veterans returning from war, only 2-3% of OT practitioners work in a mental health setting today. I wanted to understand this decline, and what effects it had on occupational therapy assistant students' education. As an OTA student who has a passion for mental health, I was excited to learn WMU has a long-standing relationship with a local traditional mental health facility, where OT students have had the opportunity to learn for years. However, as the OTA program is relativity new and not many students previously had expressed an interest in mental health this placement was not yet available to OTA students. Wanting to learn more about students' experiences at this placement, I completed a survey sent out to OT doctorate students who had previously completed a fieldwork placement here to gather a further understanding of their experiences. A literature review helped to support the role of OT in mental health settings, but also it supported the drastic decline of their involvement. Taking the research and responses from the survey, I was able to create a poster presentation. The goal of this presentation was to not only advocate for the role of OT in mental health but also start further conversations about the decline. For my dissemination I had the opportunity to present at the Barbra Rider Colloquium, sharing my project with occupational therapy practitioners. Many individuals shared my project was such an important topic, and they hadn’t realized such a decline had occurred. Additionally, OTA students will now have a placement along with the doctorate students at the local mental health facility. I may not have changed the world, but I did start a conversation and made a small impact at my school, and for that I am proud.
Thank you, Aleah Snell
Recommended Citation
Snell, Aleah, "Advocating for the Role of an Occupational Therapy Assistant in the Mental Health Field" (2024). Honors Theses. 3933.
https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/honors_theses/3933
Access Setting
Honors Thesis-Open Access