Occupational balance supporting interventions for working-age adults with mental ill-health: A Scoping review : OB-supporting interventions

Abstract: Background: Mental health problems are common in the working-age adult population globally leading often to occupational imbalance. The purpose of this scoping review is to summarize which occupational therapy interventions are described in the literature, that are designed to support the occupational balance of adults of working age with stress, depression, or mental ill-health. Further, the purpose is to describe the interventions’ impact on participants' occupational balance viewed through the theoretical lens of Wilcock and Hocking's four aspects of occupation: doing, being, belonging, and becoming. Method: The scoping review methodology of Arksey and O’Malley has been used for mapping the information about the topic. Results: Four OB-supporting interventions were found: Redesigning daily occupations (ReDO), Balancing Everyday Life (BEL), Action over inertia (AOI), and Therapeutic gardening program all included the doing, being, belonging, and becoming aspects in their methods, and had promising positive effects to participants lives and occupational balance. Conclusion: Several occupational balance (OB) -supporting interventions are used in different populations and for different purposes. Wilcock and Hocking’s four aspects of occupation may be used as an overarching theoretical framework to describe OB-supporting methods in Occupational therapy. Future studies will need to find empirical evidence to support this finding.