The Lived Experience of Mothers Who Are Homeless and Participated in an Occupational Therapy Leisure Craft Group

Abstract

This phenomenological, qualitative, pilot investigation gained insight into the lived experience of mothers, living in an emergency homeless shelter, who participated in a twice weekly occupational therapy leisure craft group. This research applied the constructs of the Person-Environment-Occupation theoretical model along with concepts from occupational justice to provide occupational therapy services to an underserved population. Information was obtained using semi-structured interviews to explore what meaning was derived from participating in these occupational therapy group craft sessions. Informants verified content from existing literature regarding benefits of leisure participation and added the importance of creating an opportunity for self-care when faced with homelessness.

Keywords:

• Homeless mothers
• occupational therapy
• leisure pursuits
• crafts
• self-care

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the mothers who participated in the interviews and the executive director and case managers at the Family Supportive Housing shelter in California for supporting this investigation.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).