Occupational therapy telehealth groups in Covid-19 pandemic: perspectives from a Mental Health Day Hospital

Abstract

COVID-19 pandemic had a serious occupational impact on people with pre-existing mental disorders. To deliver care in this context, telehealth groups were a therapeutic option for occupational therapists for mental health care. This paper presents an occupational therapy experience with telehealth groups in Brazil, sustained by the Dynamic Occupational Therapy Method, seeking to discuss the use of technology during the COVID-19 outbreak, the limits and potential of occupational therapy in the face of the necessary change in work with groups. The paper is a critical analysis of practice sustained by a practice-based evidence perspective through a collaborative partnership between practitioners and academics from Brazil and the UK. Practitioners reflected on their professional skills in an online context, highlighting their initial concerns and their discoveries within this new practice scenario. The delivery of telehealth groupwork in occupational therapy in mental health practice requires multiple digital tools, and the occupational therapist needs to understand digital inequity issues (digital access or skills), be digitally upskilled to meet client needs, and also be guided by clear occupational therapy theoretical and methodological frameworks that underpin telehealth practices.