Activity Participation and Inpatient Violence in Secure Mental Health

Abstract

Occupational therapists play a central role in the treatment of offenders with mental illness and violent individuals. Despite this emphasis, little is known about the occupational profile of violent psychiatric patients. This study employed a retrospective design to explore activity participation in a sample of 94 male patients in a secure psychiatric hospital. Activity participation was assessed with the Activity Participation Outcome Measure (APOM) at two time points. APOM successfully discriminated between violent and nonviolent patients and was sensitive to progress over time. The findings suggest that the tool can be successfully used to understand patients’ abilities ahead of discharge.

Keywords:

• Activity participation outcome measure
• forensic mental health
• occupational therapy
• inpatient violence

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Louise Jeffries, Anand Annamalai, and Sarah Wragg for their advice and support.