A study on the discernment by occupational therapists on whether mental health service users' occupations of a spiritual nature are health seeking behaviours or manifestations of illness

Abstract

Includes abstract.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 69-75).Spirituality has been a topic of debate in occupational therapy. However, incorporating spirituality into occupational therapy practice has remained a challenge due to its subjective nature. Limited exploration has been done on how clinical reasoning may assist occupational therapists in this regard within mental health practice, especially within the African context. In this study, the clinical reasoning process used by occupational therapists in determining whether their clients’ spiritual occupations were health seeking behaviours or manifestations of a psychiatric illness are described. Five occupational therapists within mental health practice were interviewed and transcribed data were analysed using Nvivo and Stake (2006)’s cross case analysis worksheets. Member checking, peer reviews, research journal, data triangulation and visual presentation of data were used to enhance research rigor.Three themes emerged from the study: Clinical Reasoning: Complex, dynamic and multi-layered; Multiple resources: People as key; and Rewarding and challenging experience