ArticleBMC health services research2025
Barriers and facilitators for the practice of occupational therapy in mental health: findings from a global practitioner survey of the World Federation of Occupational Therapists.
Article in BMC health services research, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed.
- Occupational therapists' experiences in Australia's primary mental health funding scheme: Navigating complexity in a constrained system.Australian occupational therapy journal · 2026Article
- Letter to Editor: Beyond Symptom Reduction: A Call to Integrate Well-Being in Psychosis Research and Early Intervention.Early intervention in psychiatry · 2026Article
- Perception of occupational therapy intervention in wheelchair seating among healthcare professionals in Bahrain.Frontiers in rehabilitation sciences · 2026Article
- Exploring Competencies That Prepare Occupational Therapy Students for Acute Mental Health Practice: A Document Analysis.Occupational therapy international · 2026Article
- Education of Occupational Therapists in Mental Health: A Global Survey of Educators Regarding Perceived Facilitators and Barriers.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundOccupational therapists are health professionals with knowledge and capacity to address mental health (MH) needs and reduce MH workforce shortages worldwide. However, occupational therapists working in MH are often underrepresented within the MH and occupational therapy workforce.
aimUsing the perspective of occupational therapists with MH practice, the study aimed to: identify barriers and facilitators for occupational therapy practice in MH, and analyze differences in respondent or country level characteristics.
methodsThe study involved secondary ecological analysis of survey responses. The survey was developed and disseminated by the World Federation of Occupational Therapists. Ordinal logistic regressions were used to determine whether individual- and country-level variables (e.g., demographic, socio-economic factors) significantly affected the survey responses.
resultsSurvey responses (n = 1102) were obtained from 67 countries or territories. Of the nine surveyed factors, six (66%) were rated more often as barriers for practice, including "waiting times", "services funding", "intervention costs", and "therapists availability". "Screening & referral" and having "education /preparation for MH" were practice facilitators. Responses did not substantially vary by respondent or country-related factors, except for the Socio-Demographic Index which substantially and significantly affected the response pattern for "safety concerns" (estimate: 11.08; 95% CI:7.09-15.07; p<.0001).
conclusionThe results of this large worldwide survey of occupational therapists on the facilitators and barriers for practice in MH can help inform strategies to strengthen practice in this field. While referral and screening mechanisms should be reinforced to facilitate access to occupational therapy, such actions need to be complemented with adequate service funding, career attractiveness, and therapist availability; otherwise, increased service demands may result in unmet needs and service constraints. Further research is needed to investigate why "safety concerns" was a reported barrier particularly for countries with a lower Socio Demographic Index.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.