Editorial

We want to inform you of updates to Occupational Therapy in Mental Health (OTMH). Over the life of the journal, we have been proud of the contributions of our editors, beginning with the founding editor, Karen Diasio, followed by Diane Gibson.

We are now entering a new editorial phase as we bid farewell to Marie-Louise Blount, AM, OT, FAOTA with her retirement at the end of 2021. Marie-Louise has been with the journal for 23 years, first as editor for one year and then as coeditor for 22 years. During the time she has been coeditor, the journal changed ownership from Haworth Press to Taylor & Francis. As research developed, so did the journal, moving from a majority of theoretical articles to research-based articles, aligning with the mission of the profession to embrace evidence-based practice.

Going forward we appreciate the continuing presence of Mary Donohue, PhD, OT, FAOTA, who has moved from coeditor to associate editor. Mary began her work with the journal during her time at New York University. As associate editor, Mary assists with the review of some articles and organizes the annual luncheon for our editorial review board at the AOTA Conference, which we hope will return in person in 2021.

We would like to welcome Emily Raphael-Greenfield, EdD, OTR/L, FAOTA, as coeditor of the journal. Emily currently is Special Lecturer, Programs in Occupational Therapy, Columbia University, NY, NY. Emily’s involvement with the journal as an author, reviewer, and soon coeditor has prepared her well for the new coeditor role. Emily officially began the coeditor role in July 2021.

At this time of change, I am excited to work with this new team in my role as coeditor.

State of the journal

OTMH has been owned and operated by Taylor & Francis since 2007. Taylor & Francis was founded in 1852 and is a worldwide publishing company, based in the UK, with offices in 18 countries. It publishes more than 2,700 journals (Taylor & Francis, 2021; Taylor & Francis—Wikipedia, 2021). Authors and reviewers use the ScholarOne platform to submit and review articles. Taylor & Francis annually provide us with a report of the state of the journal. We share this report with our editorial board. Taylor & Francis also has many online resources for editors, reviewers, and authors as well as webinars throughout the year for editors. Taylor & Francis provide staff to facilitate peer review, production process, and staff support for the editors.

Our number of submissions per year continues to grow, with the largest number of submissions to date in 2020. Downloads of articles in 2021 represent a 5% increase from 2020 (Taylor & Francis OTMH Annual Report, March 2021). Taylor & Francis sends automated new content emails as soon as new content is published online. You can sign up for these alerts at: www.tandfonline.com/action/doUpdateAlertSettings?action=addJournal&JournalCode=WOMH20.

Over the past year, we have made some changes to our editorial review board and process. We developed and instituted a checklist for reviewers, one for research- and one for non-research-based articles, and one for our upcoming addition, opinion papers. Our editorial board members provided feedback during the development of the checklists, which reflect the minimum criteria for quantitative and qualitative studies within research articles and components necessary for non-research articles and opinion papers (see Supplementary Materials). These are provided to reviewers to evaluate each article and provided via the link in this editorial so potential authors can make informed decisions about the suitability of their articles for publication in OTMH. Additionally, there are links within the checklists for our editorial review members to access resources within the Taylor & Francis system. Overall, they have helped to create more comprehensive, uniform reviews, with concrete specific feedback to the authors. Additionally, we have expanded our list of editorial board members a few times in the past few years. We are happy to report that we currently have 70 reviewers. Our list of international reviewers has expanded significantly. Of the 70 reviewers, 22 represent 11 countries outside of the US. This represents all continents except Antarctica.

Future directions

As occupational therapists in mental health, we are all probably aware of the statistics regarding mental health. Worldwide, it is estimated, in 2017, that 792 million people lived with a mental health disorder. This is slightly more than one in 10 people globally (10.7%; Ritchie & Roser, 2018). In the US, nearly one in five adults live with a mental illness (51.5 million in 2019; National Institute of Mental Health [NIMH], 2021). The need for mental health services has increased over the years, even more so because of the mental health concerns that emerged from COVID-19.

Historically, in the US, OT began primarily in mental health. However, the number of OT practitioners working in traditional mental health has steadily decreased. The first objective workforce data in 1937 documented that 58% of OTs worked in psychiatric hospitals. This decreased to about 18% in mental health settings in 1973 to about 8% in 1990 (Stoffel et al., 2019). The 2019 American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) Workforce survey (AOTA, 2019) reports that about 2% of OT practitioners are working in traditional mental health settings (OT, 2.2%; OTA 2.1%), decreasing from about 3% in 2010.

Although these US statistics are alarming, we know that this is not the complete picture. These statistics represent traditional mental health settings, yet we know that OTs work with many populations with diagnoses in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition (DSM-5; American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2013; e.g., autism spectrum, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder [ADHD], learning disabilities, and dementia), although these may not be typically considered to be mental health conditions or funded within the mental health system. We also know that people living with mental illness often have co-occurring chronic physical conditions such as cardiac disease and diabetes (NIMH, 2021). These conditions might be the primary condition for which a referral to OT is initiated, but the mental health concerns might be addressed too. Additionally, although the situation might be of concern in the US, there is a much higher percentage of OTs working in traditional mental health in countries outside of the US, especially in countries with universal health care (Stoffel, et al, 2019). Although current statistics on the number of OTs in mental health worldwide could not be located, a World Federation of Occupational Therapy (WFOT) survey in 2014 found that of 3,183 respondents from 82 countries, 57% were mental health practitioners (Bannigan et al., 2014). OTMH has had an increased number of articles from international authors over the years, representing the more frequent presence of OT in mental health and a variety of practice settings and populations.

As OTs, we know that our comprehensive education and background in important and meaningful occupations, and the subcomponents in physical, sensory, psychological, and cognitive aspects of performance, make us ideal practitioners to provide efficient and holistic comprehensive care. Within the journal, we have several goals related to the advancement of mental health services worldwide. We want to advocate for the recognition of the mental health of all individuals under our care, both with traditional and nontraditional mental health diagnoses. We also want to promote expanded practice within traditional areas of mental health practice and to reach beyond hospital-based systems to more community practice. We have developed a collaboration with the AOTA Mental Health Special Interest Section which has some shared goals for the future of mental health occupational therapy. Through these goals we hope that the journal can be a voice for the continued growth of mental health practice within OT. To this end, with the assistance of our editorial board members, we have revised our Aims and Scope. We now have a greater focus on promoting the advancement of OT in mental health practice, and the recently updated Aims and Scope reflect this. We look to focus even more on a variety of practice settings with articles demonstrating program effectiveness and sustainability. We want to continue to learn from our international partners.

Our revised Aims and Scope are directly below.

Aims and Scope: Occupational Therapy in Mental Health explores and addresses dimensions of mental health in all areas of occupational therapy (OT) practice and research. The journal provides a forum to discuss and disseminate current critiques and challenges as well as future directions. Articles address philosophy, theory, opinion AND research in evaluation and treatment techniques, interdisciplinary practice, new programs and practice settings, and consumer collaboration. Research publications include quantitative, qualitative, mixed-methods, and case-study designs. The goal is to advance theories, innovation, equity, justice, best practices, and evidence in occupational therapy for mental health and well-being worldwide. Authors, editorial board members, and readers reflect an international OT constituency.

We have all experienced some overwhelming challenges in the past few years. We hope our readers have all coped with these challenges and are prepared to move forward with us.

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.