An occupational therapy program with the chronic care patient

The following is an example of what the occupational therapists at the Allan Memorial Institute in Montreal have done to accommodate the changing psychiatric population at the hospital. Over the past few years it seemed that certain of our programmes, being too high level, were no longer suitable for the more chronic type patient, being admitted. Thus, a re-examination of attitudes towards treatment was necessary as was the establishment of programmes with a different orientation. In doing this, the focus changed from former techniques such as projective art to a concentration on more reality oriented programmes for this group. The two programmes described are examples of this.