Life after stroke: changes in sensory health and the impact on participation.

Background: Research has demonstrated that adults post-stroke may experience sensory impairments across different sensory systems. There is a gap in research describing how sensory changes after stroke affect participation in health promoting activities.

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to understand how changes in sensory health after stroke affect participation in meaningful activities.

Predictors of Population Mental Health in Montana: An Occupational Justice Perspective.

Population-level analyses can demonstrate occupational injustices and their impact on population health. The objective of this article is to examine whether population-level occupational factors are related to the mental health of Montanans. We used linear regression models of the 2021 Montana County Health Rankings to examine the association between occupational justice and mental health, adjusting for covariates.

An international consensus definition for contextual factors: findings from a nominal group technique.

Objective: Emerging literature suggests contextual factors are important components of therapeutic encounters and may substantially influence clinical outcomes of a treatment intervention. At present, a single consensus definition of contextual factors, which is universal across all health-related conditions is lacking. The objective of this study was to create a consensus definition of contextual factors to better refine this concept for clinicians and researchers.

Polysensoriality and Aesthetics: The Lived Sensory Experiences of Adults with Mental Illness.

Research in neuroscience shows that adults with schizophrenia or related psychotic disorders experience atypical sensory processing (e.g., deficits in sensory gating and mismatch negativity).

Occupational Reflection as Intervention in Inpatient Psychiatry.

Importance: The recovery model in mental health involves person-driven care and informed decision making to enhance engagement in meaningful activities and inclusion in society. To facilitate the recovery process, occupational therapy practitioners must support their clients in understanding how their participation in meaningful occupation is intimately related to their health and well-being.

Objective: To explore whether engaging in an occupational reflection intervention on an inpatient psychiatric unit can support the recovery of adults living with serious mental illness (SMI).

Liminal Space of First-Episode Psychosis: Health Management and Its Effect on Social Participation.

Importance: Managing health requires extensive time and effort, especially in the early stages of a new illness. Although important, health management occupations contribute to treatment burden, disrupt engagement in other occupations, and galvanize the incorporation of the illness into identity. This is especially true for young adults after first-episode psychosis (FEP).

Identifying Predictors of Momentary Negative Affect and Depression Severity in Adolescents with Autism: An Exploratory Ecological Momentary Assessment Study.

Depression is a common comorbidity in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Little is known about risk factors for depression and depressive symptoms in this population. Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) has been used in the typically developing population to identify risk factors for depression, but has been rarely applied in ASD populations.

Women's Experiences After Ovarian Cancer Surgery: Distress, Uncertainty, and the Need for Occupational Therapy.

Importance: Despite the growing literature on the association of functional, physical, and quality-of-life (QOL) deficits with poor postoperative outcomes, there is a gap in the literature identifying women's occupational performance needs after ovarian cancer surgery.

Objective: To describe the experiences of women hospitalized after ovarian cancer surgery to identify potential areas for intervention. Goals were to (1) identify functional needs and limitations at time of discharge as measured by the typical acute care occupational therapy evaluation and semistructured interview and (2) understand the women's perspectives of their needs for occupational therapy and a safe return to home.

Doing Occupational Justice: A Central Dimension of Everyday Occupational Therapy Practice.

Background.: The Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists (CAOT) and the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) state that occupational justice is part of the domain of occupational therapy and that occupational justice is "an aspect of contexts and environments and an outcome of intervention" (AOTA, 2014, p. S9).

How Responsiveness From a Communication Partner Affects Story Retell in Aphasia: Quantitative and Qualitative Findings.

Purpose Because people with aphasia (PWA) frequently interact with partners who are unresponsive to their communicative attempts, we investigated how partner responsiveness affects quantitative measures of spoken language and subjective reactions during story retell. Method A quantitative study and a qualitative study were conducted. In Study 1, participants with aphasia and controls retold short stories to a communication partner who indicated interest through supportive backchannel responses (responsive) and another who indicated disinterest through unsupportive backchannel responses (unresponsive).

Dual-Task Effects on Story Retell for Participants With Moderate, Mild, or No Aphasia: Quantitative and Qualitative Findings.

Purpose The aims of the study were to determine dual-task effects on content accuracy, delivery speed, and perceived effort during narrative discourse in people with moderate, mild, or no aphasia and to explore subjective reactions to retelling a story with a concurrent task. Method Two studies (1 quantitative and 1 qualitative) were conducted. In Study 1, participants with mild or moderate aphasia and neurotypical controls retold short stories in isolation and while simultaneously distinguishing between high and low tones.

Linking Neuroscience, Function, and Intervention: A Scoping Review of Sensory Processing and Mental Illness.

Purpose: Sensory approaches to mental illness are increasingly prominent in occupational therapy. Despite indicators of efficacy, a paucity of literature supports these approaches. This article provides a scoping review of research on the relationship between sensory processing and mental illness.

Habits of the Sensory System and Mental Health: Understanding Sensory Dissonance.

Objective: In occupational therapy, research has studied sensory function predominantly in relation to sensory disorders. There is a gap in the literature exploring how sensory experiences affect mental health. This study sought to provide a phenomenological understanding of how people relate experiences of sensory dissonance to their mental health.

Video methodologies in research: unlocking the complexities of occupation.

Background: Video methods are used by numerous academic disciplines researching human action. Occupational therapists and scientists have primarily employed video data to enumerate subcomponents of occupational behaviour, to conduct reliability tests, and to study clinical reasoning. There is a gap in the literature using video data to explore complex dimensions of typical occupational behaviour.