To Örebro University

PURPOSE: Time management skills are essential for handling daily life in a modern society. People with ADHD, Autism spectrum disorder or mental disorders may have affected time management, which for example might lead to poor occupational balance, low self-efficacy and difficulites to maintain family and working life. Let’s Get Organized’(LGO) is a manual-based group intervention to improve time management skills. The aim of this trial was to evaluate the efficiency of the Swedish version of LGO (LGO-S) compared to treatment as usual (individual occupational therapy) to improve time management for adults with impaired time management skills due to neurodevelopmental or mental disorders.

DESIGN: Multi-center two-armed open parallel randomized controlled trail (RCT). Participants (n=88) from nine out-patient psychiatric or habilitation care units were randomized into 1) Let’s Get Organized (LGO-S) and 2) individual occupational therapy (treatment as usual).

METHOD: Both groups received intervention for 10 weeks. Data was collected pre-, post- and three months post intervention. Primary outcome measure was self-assessed time management skills. Secondary outcome measures were self assessed planning and organisational skills, regulation of emotions, satisfaction with daily occupations and self-efficacy.

RESULTS: Both LGO and Individual occupational therapy showed statistically significant improvements in time management skills after intervention (p<0.001 in both groups). The results were maintained at the three month follow-up. There were no statistically significant differences between groups. Analyzes of secondary outcomes are ongoing and will be presented at the conference.

CONCLUSION: Both LGO and individual occupational therapy had a positive effect on the participants’ time management skills. Conclusions about secondary outcomes and possible correlations will be presented at the conference.