An Investigation into an Occupation-Focused Self-Management Programme for College Students experiencing Mental Health Difficulties.
Citation:
Lewis, Kieran, An Investigation into an Occupation-Focused Self-Management Programme for College Students experiencing Mental Health Difficulties., Trinity College Dublin.School of Medicine, 2022Download Item:
Abstract:
Background: In response to ever increasing numbers of students in higher education experiencing mental health difficulties, an occupation-focused self-management programme, called the Unilink Self-Management Programme (USMP) was introduced into the Disability Service of an Irish third-level Higher Education Institute in 2012. The USMP is delivered by Occupational Therapists in the college context, and is designed to enable students experiencing mental health difficulties to engage in their student roles, as well as developing personal and practical self-management skills to maintain their health and well-being.
Methods: Two research objectives were established in this study: a) To explore the personal outcomes of student participants from engaging in the Unilink Self-Management Programme b) To explore the experiences and reflections of students and occupational therapists in using the Unilink Self-Management Programme. To address research objective one, an exploratory multiple case study approach was chosen. This involved the presentation of ten in-depth case studies of students who completed the USMP. A mixed methods approach was chosen, combining qualitative data from interviews with students over three phases (pre-programme, post-programme and twelve-month follow-up), with quantitative data from the SF-36v2 Quality of Life measure (Ware et al, 2007) and the Brief Symptom Inventory (Derogatis, 1993). This was further integrated with progression data from an audit of case notes. To address research objective two, a process evaluation was used to frame the experiences and reflections of students and occupational therapists using the Medical Research Council (MRC) guidance on process evaluations of complex interventions (Moore et al., 2015). This combined data from interviews with students who completed the USMP and at least two phases of the research, with data from interviews with occupational therapists who delivered the programme, and with descriptive data on the use of the programme from an audit of the clinical notes.
Results: Thirty student participants and six occupational therapist participants took part in the research which was carried out over a four-year period 2013-2017. Ten students completed all three phases of the research, with a further ten students completing two phases. The majority of the students who completed the USMP graduated (86%). This compared favourably with national progression data and literature on the experiences of students with mental health conditions. Students highlighted an increased understanding of their mental health, recovery and occupation over the course of three interviews. They described how their mental health impacted upon their student lives, but also how they developed an increased ability to recognise this and felt able to respond. 45% of students who completed the programme (n=20) showed increased quality of life at phase two of the research, with this rising to 80% at twelve-month follow-up (n=10). 35% of students (n=20) showed reduced psychological symptomatology on the Brief Symptom Inventory, with this rising to 70% at twelve-month follow-up (n=10).
Conclusion: Both students and occupational therapists positively received the USMP. The individualisation of the programme in terms of number of meetings and duration of the programme was valued by students and occupational therapists, as was the one-to-one meeting format and personalisation of the content to each student. The collaborative relationship with the occupational therapist and focus upon occupation were considered to be core elements of the USMP in terms of promoting change. In particular, both students and occupational therapists highlighted the sharing of opinions around the concepts of mental health, recovery and occupation as an important foundation for a collaborative relationship and as a positive experience for them.
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Trinity College Dublin (TCD)
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APPROVED
Author: Lewis, Kieran
Advisor:
Nolan, ClodaghPublisher:
Trinity College Dublin. School of Medicine. Discipline of Occupational TherapyType of material:
ThesisCollections
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Full text availableKeywords:
Occupational Therapy, Self-Management, Higher Education, Mental HealthMetadata
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