OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY IN PSYCHIATRY Introduction. Occupational therapy is the only profession that helps people throughout their life cycle to do what they want and need through the therapeutic use of daily activities (occupations). Procedures. Data for this thesis were collected by reviewing printed editions of books, online sources of professional databases such as the Hrčak Portal of Croatian scientific and professional journals, PubMed and the World Health Organization. All these data were published between 2011 and 2021 in Croatian and English. View topic. Occupational therapy plays a key role in the assessment and treatment of mental illness using activities, however, the provision of occupational therapy is not consistent. Some services have dedicated occupational therapists, others have occupational therapists working in generic roles, and some have no occupational therapy at all. Occupational therapy is widely valued, but it is not well understood by managers at the strategic level, who make too little use of the professional role in their clinical environment. Occupational therapy has a number of benefits when used to intervene and treat mental illness and cognitive disorders. According to the American Association for Occupational Therapy, occupational therapy has had many positive outcomes for people with mental illness in a variety of areas, such as education, workplace, health and well-being, and skills development. Conclusion. The use of occupational therapy along with primary care plans for patients with mental illness (such as medication or behavioral therapy) can have many lasting benefits.