Functional Performance in Severe Psychiatric Patients and Introducing Most Practical Occupational Therapy Tools to Assess It: A Review Study

Severe psychiatric disorders, such as mood disorders and schizophrenia, are caused due to impairment of physiological, psychosocial, and genetic functions. These disorders affect the functional performance of these people. Functional performance is called the ability of individuals to carry out daily activities and to have efficiency in their fields of work, leisure, and self-care, as well as having the satisfaction of doing these activities. The existence of functional performance contributes to the participation, well-being, and independence of these individuals. Therefore, evaluating functional performance and familiarity with the most widely used tools and appropriate psychometric properties in this field is essential for the provision of services.

In the current study, functional performance was first defined and described in severe psychiatric patients. After examining existing books in the field of occupational therapy of mental health, and google scholar, OT seeker, PubMed, and ProQuest databases, in the first step, identifying the most commonly used tests, in the second step, we examined the psychometric properties of the tests on the database and the test manual.

Our investigation resulted in identifying 316 tests. According to entry and exit criteria, including functional performance measurement, the use of standardized methods and training, adult psychiatric disorder, clinical application, showing treatment efficacy, measurements individual profile, and appropriate psychometric properties, six tests, namely OPHI, COPM, ACLS, KELS, BaFPE, and AMPS were studied.

According to the results, considering the importance of functional performance in their ability to participate, well-being, and independence, familiarity with the functional performance evaluation tools identified in this study can be an important step in screening, providing health care, and demonstrating the effectiveness of treatment for these individuals. Also, in order to use these tests in our country, it is recommended that the tests which have not been standardized be investigated.