Understanding living skills: first steps to evidence-based practice. Lessons learned from a practice-based journey in the Netherlands.

Living skills training is a commonly used but sparsely described and researched - occupational therapy - intervention for people with severe mental health problems. A service improvement project was established in a mental health organization in the Netherlands starting in 2006 to design more effective living skills training courses for individuals and groups. The steps of the evidence-based practice process underpinned the project.