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Job Title
Research Assistant II
Academic Rank
Staff/Research Assistant
Department
Emergency Medicine
Authors
Wizda CN, Clifford KC, Buckley V, Kelly N, Hasdianda MA, Dundin A, Itrich T, Im DD
Principal Investigator
Dana D. Im, MD, MPP, MPhil
Categories
Tags
Patients experiencing acute behavioral health (BH) emergencies are increasingly turning to the Emergency Department (ED) to receive necessary treatment due to the scarcity of inpatient psychiatric beds. Introducing psychiatric occupational therapy (OT) into ED care aims to convert boarding time into active treatment time and to ultimately improve BH patient outcomes by introducing coping skills and promoting self-managed sensory modulation.
On average, participants boarded in the BWH ED for over two days (M=55.6 hrs, SD=44.0 hrs), with some waiting over a week for inpatient psychiatric admission. REDCap surveys conducted pre-intervention and one-hour post-intervention assessed the impact of psychiatric OT on participants’ symptoms and satisfaction. Self-reported results from 68 participants’ pre- and post-surveys indicated a significant decrease in anxiety scores (p=0.014) and distress levels (p< 0.001). A majority of participants reported that OT helped them cope with their symptoms and distress (52.9%) and made a difference in their ED stay (64.7%). Results suggest that OT intervention could be effective for addressing acute symptoms of psychiatric crises, even during ED boarding. Continued investigation into the impact of OT in the days following intervention could demonstrate how to enhance short and longer-term patient outcomes during BH emergencies while awaiting inpatient psychiatric admission.
Patients experiencing behavioral health (BH) emergencies are increasingly turning to the Emergency Department (ED) to receive necessary treatment due to a lack of inpatient psychiatric beds. Introducing psychiatric occupational therapy (OT) into ED care aims to utilize this time to actively treat BH emergencies and to ultimately improve patient outcomes by using everyday activities to better cope and respond to sensory input.
On average, participants stayed in the BWH ED for over two days (M=55.6 hrs, SD=44.0 hrs), with some waiting over a week for inpatient psychiatric admission. REDCap surveys conducted pre-intervention and one-hour post-intervention assessed how psychiatric OT impacts participants’ symptoms and satisfaction. Self-reported results from 68 participants’ pre- and post-surveys indicated a significant decrease in anxiety scores (p= 0.014) and distress levels (p< 0.001). A majority of participants reported that OT helped them cope with their symptoms and distress (52.9%) and made a difference in their ED stay (64.7%). Results suggest that OT intervention could be effective for addressing immediate symptoms of psychiatric crises. Continued investigation into the impact of OT in the days following intervention could demonstrate how to enhance short and longer-term patient outcomes during BH emergencies while patients await admission to inpatient psychiatric facilities.
