Participation in meaningful activities and occupations according to personal values and choices is one of the central components of health and well-being. Therefore, it is one of the ultimate goals of health services delivery as suggested by the WHO vision. To date, after decades of pharmacological treatment, mental health conditions remain one of the main reasons for disability all over the world due to restrictions in daily life participation that they cause. Still, following decades of research focused on behavioral, biological, physiological and social aspects of mental health conditions, our understanding of mechanisms underlying restrictions in participation in meaningful occupation is still limited. Moreover, despite a wide range of available medication, and cognitive, psychological and psycho-social interventions, further work is needed to ameliorate restrictions in daily life participation.
My research is inspired and guided by clinical practice in the field of mental health. Following the stages of clinical practice, there are three directions in my research: (1) investigation of factors underlying participation in daily-life meaningful occupations of people with severe mental illness (SMI); (2) establishing assessment tools for participation and factors affecting it through investigation their psychometric properties and ecological validity; (3) launching intervention practices for promotion of participation and health by investigation their effectiveness and processes for knowledge translation.
I believe that results of this lab’s work will be informative for wide research society and clinicians who are interested in understanding and promotion of daily life functioning and participation of people with mental health condition.
With the ultimate goal to enable full occupational and community participation of people with mental health conditions, contributing to their health and well-being, our lab works toward 3 major objectives:
- Investigate unique patterns of participation and occupational balance in various mental health condition;
- Reveal factors underlying participation in daily-life meaningful occupations of people with mental health condition;
- Promote practices (assessment tools and interventions) encouraging participation and health in these conditions.
Our research is inspired by field work with people with mental health conditions, so we highly committed to knowledge translation processes. We use a range of research approaches and tools in our work, including innovative technologies and methods in EEG, eye-tracing, Virtual Reality and mobile platforms working collaboratively with many disciplines.
We believe that results of our work will be informative for wide research society and clinicians who are interested in understanding and promotion of daily life functioning and participation of people with mental health condition.
Contact information: Elena.velikovsky@mail.huji.ac.il