Artistic modalities in occupational therapy

The purpose of this study was to investigate mental health occupational therapists'perceived usefulness of art as a therapeutic modality for clients with depression, and the extent to which they used artistic modalities in their practice. A survey questionnaire composed of 23 closed-ended questions based on a Likert-type scale, with space for extra qualitative comments was mailed to 150 American Occupational Therapy Association's (AOTA) Mental Health Special Interest Section members from all 50 states in the USA. Data from 81 questionnaires were analyzed using descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. Qualitative comments in the questionnaires provided triangulation of data. Results indicated that mental health occupational therapists perceive art to be very useful when working with clients with depression. However, many of them indicated that they did not use artistic modalities very often. It was concluded from the findings that further research should be done to discover exactly why artistic modalities are not used often in practice