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Bringing an occupational perspective to forensic mental health Lorrae Mynard, Lead OT at Forensicare
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orensic mental health (FMH) services provide care to people experiencing mental illness who become involved with the criminal justice system (CroninDavis, 2017; Muñoz, 2019). Australian forensic occupational therapists work mostly in discipline-specific roles within low to high security and brief to extended stay settings, including prisons, secure hospitals, courts, and community services. Collaborations between justice and multidisciplinary health services are expanding in recognition that many people within this system experience mental ill health and/or disability and need specialised input, leading to recent significant growth in forensic occupational therapy services in several states. Occupational therapists provide interventions that
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consider the interactions between the person, occupation, and environment. People receiving FMH services often have a diagnosis of mental illness, and may also experience substance misuse, personality disorder, intellectual or developmental disability and history of trauma. Level of educational attainment is often low and indigenous and minority populations are over-represented. The physical environment, often comprising hard surfaces and stark spaces with limited privacy and access to resources, is designed to contain and restrict. This impacts occupational participation: reducing opportunities for and personal choice of occupations. The social environment of correctional and health staff and other prisoners or forensic patients may
be experienced as supportive or challenging. The institutional environment may include rigid routines which limit opportunities for person-therapist interactions; or uncertainty around release dates that affects continuity and completion of therapy.
Supporting people in FMH services Occupational therapists work at individual, group, and service levels to promote opportunities for participation in meaningful occupation during incarceration/
