Finding meaning in daily living: A conversation with Dr. Deborah Pitts on the untapped promise of integrating occupational therapy in mental health settings

Dr. Deborah Pitts is a Professor of Clinical Occupational Therapy at the USC Chan Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy.  Her practice expertise includes community-based mental health and psychiatric rehabilitation, particularly in the permanent supportive housing (PSH) context, and the ‘lived experience’ of recovery for persons labeled with psychiatric disorders, in particular occupational engagement and psychosis.   Her doctoral dissertation focused on practice reasoning of front-line service providers (i.e., Personal Service Coordinators) in a community-based mental health wrap-around program known as a Full-Service Partnership (FSP) serving persons labeled with psychiatric disabilities.   She took the lead for the Chan Division’s participation in the USC Homeless Initiative through her partnerships with local organizations providing services to persons experiencing homelessness to create student learning opportunities. In this interview, we will explore the basic framework to understand the untapped potential to fully integrate occupational therapy into residential contexts to come alongside and support people living with a serious mental illness.  We will tease out the distinction between psychosocial rehabilitation and clinical interventions.  We’ll define the terms “occupational science” and “occupational therapy" and "functional cognition."    She will underscore the importance of developing a relationship between the therapist and the client – and this takes time, something the American payment system does not reward for when reimbursing for services. And, most important, we will explore how occupational therapy could be additive to the service support teams in our homeless housing ecosystem – if we could find a way to pay for this.