02/25/2026
Did you know? OT has strong roots in mental health! 🧠
It was initially started as a humane approach to treat mental illness in wounded WW1 soldiers, replacing restraints with structured, meaningful activity and work.
Fast forward a little over 100 years later, and in 2023, WA state legislature passed a bill that allows for OTs to work and get reimbursed for services in behavioral health agencies across the state! Part of this bill included funding to help supply equipment and OT practitioners in agencies that haven’t had OTs before. Now OTs can work in homeless shelters, treatment centers, transitional housing, and outpatient counseling offices.
Mikayla has been consulting with a non-profit group that provides counseling services for kids up to 25 years of age and their families. Their staff has been able to use her knowledge and assistance in planning to convert an old conference room into a sensory gym! While they continue to look for their pilot OT, other mental health therapists are able to use the space in their sessions, too.
Mikayla had the opportunity to train a group of their staff in some basic knowledge of sensory processing and how to use some of the tools that they have. Sensory integration is a powerful piece of mental health, and it benefits kids to have many people around them who have at least a basic idea of the tools that they can use. Staff are already eager to try some activities during their sessions, and were able to identify some of the kids on their caseloads who might benefit the most!
