Increasing the occupational participation in people with intellectual disability

Background: In 2002 the definition of intellectual disability included the concepts of participation, interactions and social roles; this is highly related to the proposed CIF by the WHO. Both highlight the outstanding paper... [ view full abstract ]

Background:
In 2002 the definition of intellectual disability included the concepts of participation, interactions and social roles; this is highly related to the proposed CIF by the WHO. Both highlight the outstanding paper provided to analyze the opportunities and restrictions that the individual has to participate in the life of the community.
The aim of this study is to increase the social participation of people with intellectual disability by increasing their perception of health, so they can involve in meaningful occupations.

Method:
This study examined a health promotion program of occupational therapy using the MOHO with 12 Spanish people intellectually disabled. For the research methodology, a pre-post design was used, comparing qualitative and quantitative variables at the beginning and at the end of the program.
Results:
The results showed an increase in the level of health perception, in general, and particularly related to social functioning and physical aspects. Furthermore, the number of roles in which the participants wanted to get involved in the future, was higher after the program. (TABLE 1)
Conclusion:
Learning to analyse the occupations we get involved in improves our health perception, and this makes people with intellectual disability want to start new meaningful occupations after completing the program.

Application to Practice:
This program allowed participants to engage in meaningful occupations through the occupational self-analysis as already has been proved by other studies like the Redesign lifestyle program in aging people. Then, we can say that is useful for other groups.