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Rachel Church has forged a bit of a unique path in her two years as an occupational therapist.
When she joined Nova Scotia Health’s Early Psychosis Program, she became a licensed research coordinator, allowing her to help people while also working to find new, promising treatments for young adults seeking care.
“I have the opportunity to contribute to mental health research while applying an occupational therapy lens. I also get the opportunity to deliver therapies using occupational therapy approaches and help young adults with their recovery goals in this research role,” she said.
The program works with a patient population comprised of young adults in the early stages of a psychotic diagnosis such as schizophrenia or other psychiatric disorders.
In her role, Rachel has been involved in research projects focused on investigating psychotherapeutic treatments for substance use, cognitive remediation for patients with early phase psychosis, and improving integrated care in mental health services across Canada.
Feedback from patients and their families about the program have been positive, she said.
“I’ve gotten a lot feedback that some of the therapies – like we’ve done cognitive remediation therapy – has been really helpful for our population,” she said. “So this is giving them an opportunity to try something that they wouldn’t have access to otherwise.”
Rachel said occupational therapy is a profession that has always intrigued her, particularly because of the holistic approach to helping people on their journey to enhance functional outcomes.
“I liked how it relates to helping people with mental health challenges and in other areas of their life, and I think that occupational therapy really accounts for things - looking at the occupations, looking at the environments – to really help people get back to a good functional place and reach meaningful goals,” she said.
Upon graduation, she immediately jumped at the opportunity to join the Early Psychosis Program and take on this unique role.
“I knew that I wanted to work with this population and it fit really well with the job description from Nova Scotia Health,” she said, adding that she is excited to see where this journey takes her and how she can help her patients in a variety of ways.
“One thing I really like about my role as research coordinator is that we have a lot of different projects that we’re applying for and it feels different year to year,” she said. “So, I’m looking forward to working on future projects and seeing where we go from there. And I’m also open to seeing where mental health occupational therapy might take me.”