Pre-vocational therapy in mental health. Clients' desired and achieved productivity status

Background:Knowledge about work-related occupational therapy in psychiatric inpatient andday hospital clients is limited.Aims:The aim of the study was to explore the desired and achieved productivity status in men-tal health service users participating in a pre-vocational therapy (PVT) intervention. Outcome var-iables were productivity status and achievement of desired productivity status at discharge, andchange or persistence of productivity status between admission and discharge.Methods:This is a short-term prospective study based on observational data from healthrecords (N¼98).Results:At admission, 53.2% of participants named a clear desired productivity status; 46.8%did not. Of the former, 76.9% expressed a desire for employment or education on the regularjob market; 28.0% achieved their desired outcome at discharge, whereas 72.0% did not. Overall,58.5% retained, established or increased productive activities, while 41.5% were not engaged inor had reduced productive activities at discharge. These two groups differed in socio-economicand social-security-related characteristics, treatment-related characteristics and psychi-atric diagnosis.Conclusions and significance:Some, but not all kinds of clients in acute psychiatric inpatientand day hospital settings manage to take a first step towards productive activities during thefirst phase of treatment