Exploring Occupation-Based Interventions for Veterans

Zayla completed her 14 week doctoral capstone at the VA Central Iowa in Des Moines, IA. Zayla Attends Drake University’s Occupational Therapy Doctoral Program in Des Moines, IA. During her capstone experience, Zayla focused on providing evidence-based group interventions for a veteran population. Zayla explored occupation-based interventions and implemented these into community-based group sessions in the VA’s Psychosocial Rehabilitation and Recovery Center (PRRC). She picked these interventions based on current research indicating the main areas of occupation that veterans have difficulty with on a daily basis. Some examples of group protocols that she created are: Wellness Recovery Action Plan (WRAP), budgeting, sensory interventions, 8 dimensions of wellness, coping skills, sleep hygiene, relapse recovery/prevention, goal setting, substance use, and mindfulness. She also researched community resources to provide veterans with an opportunity to address all 8 dimensions of wellness which are: physical, emotional, spiritual, occupational, financial, social, environmental, and intellectual. All these resources were given to the occupational therapists and other providers within the VA Central Iowa system. Throughout this lecture, you will walk through the process of how Zayla’s capstone was formulated and you will be able to identify the importance of mental health occupational therapists and their role within a veteran population.