Date of Award

5-2026

Document Type

USM Access Dissertation

Department

Occupational Therapy

First Advisor

Susan Noyes

Second Advisor

Tammy Bickmore

Keywords

OTD, Occupational Therapy

Abstract

Sensory processing is a complex neurological process in which the brain receives, interprets, and organizes sensory information or stimuli from the environment and the body (Schroeder et al., 2010). Sensory processing influences how an individual engages with the world through their daily routine, dictates what occupations they choose to participate in, and significantly impacts quality of life. Therefore, unless trained in sensory processing, many mental health clinicians may not fully comprehend the impact sensory processing challenges have on an individual’s life. The objective of this capstone research project was to investigate the mental health interdisciplinary team’s knowledge of sensory processing differences and sensory-based interventions to best support individuals with serious mental illness within an Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP). It is hypothesized that the clinical team does not have sufficient knowledge on the subject matter, therefore an implementation of a training program that focused on educating these individuals served as the intervention. The primary investigator utilized a pretest and posttest survey to capture the impact of the training program on the interdisciplinary team’s knowledge about sensory processing in adults with serious mental illness.

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