[The effectiveness of ambulatory occupational therapy measures for patients with schizophrenia]

Abstract

This study evaluates the concept of occupational therapy for schizophrenic outpatients. Preliminary results from 18 patients suggest that occupational therapy for outpatients might contribute to an improvement in cognitive-adaptive functions and open up ways for further integration on the job market. The prognosis was favourable when the outset of occupational therapy was not equated with a rise in the level of professional adaptation and a certain approachability and flexibility were to be observed in cognitive, affective and intentional aspects among the chronic schizophrenic patients. With regard to cognitive functions and to professional adaptation, it proved more favourable for occupational therapy to be carried out within the framework of regular service enterprises (external occupational therapy, n = 9) and not within training areas of the psychiatric institution itself (internal occupational therapy, n = 9). Patients taking part in internal occupational therapy felt more heavily burdened by workplace conditions, and greater family-related strain seemed to develop in the therapeutic centre than was the case among patients taking in external occupational therapy.