OT, Substance Use Disorder, and Leisure- A Capstone Project

This course highlights my capstone experience as an occupational therapy doctoral student at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. My capstone experience took place from January 2024-May 2024 in Catonsville, Maryland. I completed my project at a day program for adults experiencing mental illness. Throughout the 14 weeks of my capstone experience, I explored the unique role occupational therapy has in the recovery of substance use disorder by facilitating 1-3 groups a week for clients and meeting with clients one on one. I was especially interested in learning more about the impact meaningful leisure participation has on the course and recovery of substance use disorder. To target this, I identified clients at the day program who were currently experiencing or have previously experienced substance use disorder. I worked one on one with these clients to explore leisure’s impact on their substance use. This course goes over the steps taken to complete my capstone project from my needs assessment all the way to the completion of objective-driven artifacts. Topics discussed include personal motivation for my capstone topic, current research and literature on substance use, leisure, and occupational therapy, and insights from 14-week capstone experience. To learn more, please consider taking this course and utilizing the attached documents.