Mental Health Professionals As a psychiatrist, I am always getting confused with a psychologist! This new resource explains clearly what each different type of mental health professional does. This will vary a bit in different parts of the country but this is a good start: Working in Mental Health

Rob Waller, 07/01/2010

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Laura Lock (Guest) 29/04/2010 10:44 posted on April 17 at 10:43 I applaud your attempts to explain the various mental health professional roles, however I was very disappointed that the Occupational Therapist (OT) in the video did not explain the core role of an OT. She admitted that she is working as a generic mental health worker within a CMHT rather than an OT. An OT is a specialist in assessing and treating people's ability to participate in everyday self-care, productivity and leisure activities using experiential, psycho-educative and creative activities. The core of Occupational Therapy focuses on enablement. It is a complex intervention and deserves a much clearer explanation than provided in your video. Laura Lock, Head Occupational Therapist, St George's Eating Disorders Service RTE 25/08/2010 22:05 I agree with Laura Lock. Whilst there is an ongoing struggle, particularly in community mental health teams, for the specialist role of the OT to be properly acknowledged as distinct from the generic role it is important that the core skills of OT are properly recognised. As a Clinical Specialist OT in a community mental health team I work both generically and in providing specialist OT assessments. However, whichever role I am in I am aware and keen that the underpinning core skills and values of OT are the mainframe to any work I carry out. Even in the generic role it is acknowledged by colleagues that there is something different in this approach - a case of "it's not what you do, but the way that you do it". In terms of specialist assessment, OT provides valuable insights into how a person sees their "self" in terms of interacting in and with the environment around them. People with mental health problems have difficulties in these areas that can be missed through other specialisms. OT's unique contribution is that it links the person with their environment through meaningful occupation, so empowering them towards more rewarding inclusion in socity.