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As the primary clinical occupational therapist with the Nova Scotia Health Early Psychosis Program, Eliza Garland takes every possible opportunity to advocate for anyone who was diagnosed with psychosis.
She says she thinks it is important to break the stigma these young adults face each and every day as they work to improve their lives.
Doing so makes their road to recovery much easier.
“A lot of us have preconceived notions about what a person with psychosis or a psychosis diagnosis looks like. However, in many cases, you would not be able to tell a person in treatment from another person if you saw them walking on the street,” she said, adding that the functional prognosis for this diagnosis can be extremely positive for people.
“I think that’s not something that’s really talked about all that much. The whole purpose for our early intervention program is to try to help people have these successful outcomes, to catch people really early in the process of a psychosis diagnosis and help them get back into their lives,” she said.
“There are so many positive functional outcomes that can come with working with this population.”
Originally from the United States, Garland obtained a Master’s in Occupational Therapy from the University of Southern Maine and practiced there for two years before moving to Nova Scotia in 2018 in mental health, acute care, and pediatrics. Prior to her employment with NSH, she also established meaningful programs while working with newcomers to Canada at the Immigrant Services Association of Nova Scotia (ISANS).
She joined Nova Scotia Health in 2021 and has since worked hard helping young adults who are often going through a very tumultuous time in their lives.
“My role is really to provide assessment and interventions to help these people get back into their lives after they experience their first episode of psychosis which can be very disrupting, especially at a very important stage of most people’s lives when they’re defining so many roles and things that they want to do,” she explained.
“Going through something like that can be such a huge disruption, so I find it a very unique privilege to meet with these people and help them get in touch with their goals again and coach them through those first few months to help them go back to school or back to work and feel like they can take care of themselves again.”
On top of her clinical duties, Garland works closely with the research team on projects to address cognitive rehabilitation and substance use in the early psychosis population and has taken an interest in this part of the program.
“One of the hallmarks of our profession is evidence-based practice,” she said. “We always need to keep on what is the most effective interventions for our clients so that we can help them achieve their goals.”