Award Date

May 2023

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Occupational Therapy Doctorate

Department

Brain Health

First Committee Member

Donnamarie Krause

Second Committee Member

Jefferson Kinney

Number of Pages

94

Abstract

Mental health illnesses have a significant impact on the lives of individuals and society. Despite the availability of effective treatments, many people with psychosocial issues or cognitive impairments do not receive the right care. This highlights the importance of timely care and effective help-seeking opportunities. Increased mental health literacy and supportive behaviors in the social networks of people with mental health disorders can be achieved by providing hospital staff with education on mental health disorders. It is believed that improvements in these areas increase the likelihood that people will seek effective assistance. When healthcare providers are educated about mental health issues, they can communicate more effectively with their patients about the benefits of seeking care. However, the effectiveness of an education protocol on mental health diagnoses for the interdisciplinary staff for inpatient rehabilitations have not been assessed.This qualitative improvement project used a multi methods approach to evaluate whether an evidence-based education protocol for the interdisciplinary team at an inpatient rehabilitation center was successful in improving their knowledge on general signs and symptoms of mental health diagnoses while increasing their confidence levels. The Mental Health Literacy Scale (MHLS) for pre and posttest outcome measures was used to identify participants' changes in behaviors, attitudes, and knowledge. Though statistical significance was not found the importance of providing healthcare team supplemental resources on mental health diagnoses to increase mental health literacy and the significance of occupational therapy (OT) were highlighted. An informed healthcare environment that encourages individuals to seek effective assistance can improve the quality of care of individuals with psychosocial issues or cognitive impairments receive.

Keywords

Education; Mental health; Occupational therapy

Disciplines

Occupational Therapy

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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