Occupational therapy is the best-kept secret in behavioral health, according to Chinyu Wu, PhD, OTR, Associate Professor in the Department of Occupational Therapy at UT Health San Antonio. Wu specializes in psychiatric rehabilitation for clients with a serious mental illness, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depressive disorder.
"We assist our clients in resuming meaningful activities, such as work, handling their everyday activities, or managing their health," Wu said.
A common misconception about occupational therapy is that it solely focuses on helping people recover the skills needed to return to work after a physical health crisis. Wu said they do much more than that.
"Occupation is not just about work, but it also refers to any activities that occupy a person's mind and time," Wu explained. "It can refer to activities or tasks that are critical for an individual's social roles, as long as it is something meaningful for this individual."
Associate Professor
Occupational Therapist
UT Health San Antonio
Occupational therapists help clients retrieve or even acquire skills that allow them to fully participate in all aspects of life, including parenting, religious life, and hobbies. This is particularly helpful for people who have been diagnosed with a mental illness.
"We pay attention to how their everyday activity is being affected by cognitive impairment associated with mental illness," Wu said. "Then we help these individuals to problem solve or identify adaptation strategies to bypass their limitations."
People with serious mental illness have a life expectancy 10 to 20 years shorter than people without serious mental illness, Wu said, and a leading cause of mortality in this population is poorly controlled diabetes. She thinks occupational therapists can help improve the lives and lifespans of those who have these diagnoses, and she's created a program to identify and implement effective life strategies to achieve this goal.
Lifestyle MIND was developed for people with serious mental illness and type 2 diabetes who access support for the homeless through San Antonio’s Haven for Hope. The program's lifestyle interventions are based on existing best practices for diabetes management, along with behavioral health intervention strategies, Wu said.
An early, exploratory study of the program was promising. One participant was skeptical when he enrolled, but found the weekly classes allowed him to socialize with other people, which had been difficult because of his major depression. The program only lasted for ten weeks, but the blood glucose readings of some of the participants were also encouraging.
A more in-depth study will begin later this year.
Science & Medicine is a collaboration between TPR and The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, about how scientific discovery in San Antonio advances the way medicine is practiced everywhere.
