The just right farm: the role of occupational therapists in strategically placing participants on farms to promote mental wellbeing

Abstract

This practice piece follow-up reflects on the original publication by Deegan et al. (2023) “Nurturing Mental Health and Well-being Using Ordinary Farms”. This study aims to review the development of occupational therapy–led social farming placements five years on from the pilot programme. This paper details the structure and function of an established occupational therapy–led social farming committee across two core domains: Implementation and Oversight, and Education, Research and Promotion. The role and function of the occupational therapy–led social farming committee is presented as valuable to the success of placements. While existing assessment tools offer meaningful insight into individual recovery and goals, there is scope to develop a bespoke, occupation-focused outcome measure designed specifically to capture the unique nuances of potential occupational change that occurs during and after placements. This paper and presented views focus on the authors’ practice experience within their local service, and do not reflect comparative and empirical data nor does this paper provide systematic outcome data of the referenced assessment tools. This paper offers recommendations to support occupational therapists developing social farming initiatives in community mental health settings. It is hoped this paper will open discussion with stakeholders to consider the development of a multi-organisational co-produced occupation-focused outcome measure. The development of such a tool would pave the way to facilitate cohesive national research to the benefit of occupational therapy practice nationally.