An occupation-based lifestyle lecture intervention as part of inpatient addiction recovery treatment: Exploring occupational performance, balance and personal recovery

Introduction: Substance use disorders (SUDs) and addictive behaviours are growing problems which negatively impact health and wellbeing. Occupational therapy can support recovery by facilitating engagement in everyday activities that promote health. To date, the inclusion of occupational therapy in addiction recovery is limited and the evidence base for occupation-focused interventions is lacking. This study explores the impact of an occupational therapy-led intervention on self-reported occupational performance and occupational balance issues for people living with SUDs within an inpatient addiction service.

Methodology: A quantitative pre and post-test study was implemented. The Canadian Personal Recovery Outcome Measure (C-PROM) was the sole outcome measure. The C-PROM is a self-report measure which aims to measure personal views of recovery based on rating activity engagement. The cohort of participants were recruited from referrals into 2 inpatient addiction recovery treatment programmes using purposive sampling. Descriptive statistics were run, and a Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test was used to analyse pre and post-test scoring.

Results: Sixteen participants (9 male and 7 female) completed the intervention and outcome measure. The majority of participants (31.3%, n=5) were between 45 and 54 years old. 25% of the sample (n=4) were in the 35 to 44 age bracket while 18.8% (n=3) were aged 55 to 64. The majority of participants (68.8%, n=11) reported substance misuse as their main healthcare concern. The mean score on the C-PROM was significantly higher after participants received the intervention when compared with baseline scoring.

Conclusion: Following engagement with an occupational therapist-led intervention participants reported increased engagement in activities and occupational performance. Participants also reported improved occupational balance and increased awareness of personal recovery needs. Further research is required to explore the effectiveness of this intervention in larger samples and to explore the transferability and sustainability of skills post discharge.