Date of Award

2026

Document Type

Scholarly Project

Degree Name

Doctor of Occupational Therapy (OTD)

Department

Occupational Therapy

First Advisor

Dr. Sarah Nielsen

Abstract

Introduction: Individuals with eating disorders experience challenges in occupational engagement that stem from contributing meaning, value, and purpose to occupations that support eating disorder behaviors rather than promote quality of life (Mack et al., 2023). Recovery is highly dependent on the transition between both levels of care and back into the patient’s natural environment. Occupational therapists play an essential role in supporting patients as they transition and learn to re-engage in their lives outside of their eating disorder (Mack et al., 2023). The purpose of this project was to create materials for the occupational therapist to employ with eating disorder patients during their transition between both levels of care and back into the community.

Methodology: The model of human occupation (MOHO) was used to guide the literature review and evaluate volition, habituation, performance capacity, and environmental influences that impact occupational functioning in individuals with eating disorders (O’Brien, 2017). Additionally, the needs assessment and program development process (Fazio, 2017) was utilized to complete the project.

Results: Product materials were created so that the agency can support the sustained recovery of individuals with eating disorders. Intensive inpatient treatment holds a sense of structure/support, which is what this product aims to deliver/generalize into the patients’ natural environment. The shift back into roles such as a student, worker, sibling, and friend can be difficult for patients, but can be managed by the use of strategies derived from the model of human occupation (MOHO) [O’Brien, 2017], the transtheoretical model of change (Brown, 2019), and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) [McCraith, 2019]. A resource guide was developed and targets occupation-based interventions that address various challenges a patient may face upon transition.

Conclusions & Significance: The resource guide provides group protocols and outlines theoretical frameworks used, evaluation methods, and occupation-based intervention practices. The group protocol and product outline were used to address occupational barriers upon transition between the inpatient, partial, and intensive outpatient treatment settings or back into the community.

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