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Abstract
Four occupational therapy students developed and implemented within a voluntary community mental health day center a daily living skills program. This center, Step Ahead, had recently identified inclusion of daily living skills as a program need. To identify specific areas of skills, development needs, and to establish pretreatment scores, volunteer members were pretested with the Kohlman Evaluation of Living Skills (KELS) instrument. Based on the assessment, a seven week program was initiated to improve members' skills in Money Management, Safety and Health, and Leisure. At the end of the program the KELS was again administered. A one tailed paired t-test revealed significant improvement in the level of independence in the specific daily living skills in which the members participated. Through the occupational therapy students' program the members of Step Ahead, a community mental health day center, displayed improvement in daily living skills of (Money Management) Safety and Health and Leisure.