Mental Health Promotion, Prevention, and Intervention With Children and Youth: A Guiding Framework for Occupational Therapy

This publication provides a foundation for conceptualizing occupational therapys role in promoting mental health when working with children and youth in schools and community settings. Chapters emphasize helping children develop and maintain positive mental health, which is reflected in the presence of positive affect and psychological and social functioning, productive activities, and resilience in the face of adversity. Occupational therapists may need assistance in expanding services to include promotion and prevention activities, in addition to intervention with mental health disorders. To that end, the book delineates how occupational therapists working with children and youth can contribute to mental health promotion, prevention, and intervention in school and community settings; delineates occupational therapy services related to mental health within a public health framework at the universal, targeted, and individualized levels; recognizes current approaches within and outside the profession for meeting the needs of children and youth; and identifies practical information for promotion, prevention, and intervention in everyday occupational therapy practice with children and youth.