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I worked at OSH as an Occupational Therapy intern last year. As has been said, treatment is a whole package. Occupational Therapy is a very holistic profession and we look at a how people interact with their environment and how they need/want to go about living their lives. There are a lot of people working there who really are trying their best and doing good work. Work has to be done supporting staff and patients together in order to really help things improve.

On the unit where I worked we had pretty stable patients most of whom had been there for years (some as many as 20).However long periods of hospitalization doesn't necessarily mean long periods of active treatment. Often people are so institutionalized that dealing with the outside world is very scary and difficult.

One of the biggest issues is that not everyone is getting active treatment. The hospital doesn't have uniform regulations on treatment or even evaluation forms across the hospital (or didn't when I was there). There has to be a whole attitude shift across the hospital or nothing will change. If people in the community don't put mental health treatment as a priority then likely things won't change. 

posted 3 years, 2 months ago
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