The Voices in My Head by Eleanor Longden: An Analysis of Factors Affecting Participation in Occupations

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‘THE VOICES IN MY HEAD,' BY ELEANOR LONGDEN
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Section One
Introduction
This essay is based on the story of Eleanor Longden who, in her life as a local student in London,
experienced some challenges when she started hearing voices and could not comprehend what
was happening. Based on the story published by The Guardian, the situation moved from bad to
worse when the voices became more loud, consistent and persistent, which prompted her to stop
avoiding them and seek some help (Longden, Madill, & Waterman, 2012, p. 55). She noted that
her first step was to explain her predicaments to her friend, just like any other normal human
being would. The frightened friend encouraged her to seek medical attention a fact that finally
produced the much-intended result but after a lot of life-threatening experiences.
Based on the life experiences and examples from Eleanor Longden’s story, the essay will
analyze how the interaction between various factors such as personal, local, social, and national
factors would affect a person's participation in occupations. Occupations are the daily activities
that human being gets engaged in. From the story, we realize that Eleanor Longden was a student
in one of the local universities in London by the time her learning occupation was interrupted. As
will elaborated in details later in the essay, her predicaments were as a result of a combination of
various factors ranging from personal, social, environmental, and finally to national policies
which later on resulted to a health condition (Beck & Verticchio, 2018, p. 200). But it should be
noted from the story that such factors if taken off in a more interactive and inclusive manner,
may not end up as dangerous as Eleanor Longden's case.
Participation in the daily activities of human life is one of the fundamental sections of
development in human being’s life and the life experience in general. It is through active

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participation that people acquire and gain life skills, confidence, and competencies, we get new
friends through connecting with people and eventually find our lives meaningful. If the level and
quality of our participation in our day to day occupation are interfered with and limited in any
way, people become devastated, a matter that may lead to mental health issues like the case of
Eleanor Longden (Westaby, 2010). It is as a result of such reasons that states, relevant
organizations, and professionals try to improve health and well-being of the affected victims
through occupational therapy. Occupational therapy concentrates on making individuals and
groups of people able to take part in the day to day activities that meaningful and bring some
level of satisfaction to them and engage them in daily life activities with other people (Douglas
2013). The main aim of such kind of activity is to improve people's participation in everyday
occupations and enhance their interaction with other people to avoid or reduce stress and
depression in the society. Before assessing the remedial measures for the malfunctions in
occupational participation, the essay would first consider the factors that may promote or limit an
individual's ability to achieve maximum participation as explained in the context of participation
tool.
The context of participation refers to an interactive model aimed at promoting individuals and
groups to make rational decisions regarding participation. This participation tool was developed
by two senior lecturers in as illustrated by Hart Barnett and O'shaughnessy (2015,), Occupational
Therapy in the School of Allied Health Professionals, namely Rayya Gyui and Dr. Ian Marsh.
According to the context of participation tool, the definition of rational decision making involves
the identification and questioning assumptions, putting to task the importance of context,
imagining and seeking other options as well as developing positive criticism.

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Based on this context of participation tool, the factors that influence the participation of an
individual in the everyday occupation activities are categorized in different levels in the society,
some of which are beyond the control of the affected individual.
Socio-cultural values that surround an individual can have a limiting factor or promote the
participation of a person in his or her occupation. Some cultural beliefs limit some groups in the
society from taking part in a given set of occupations (Williams & Reid, 2012,). For instance, in
some parts of the world, women are not permitted by the society to walk alone at some hours of
the day. Such cultures have limiting effects on women regarding their participation in their day
to day activities and lower the ladies rational thinking concerning the times they should stop their
activities of the day.
An explanation by Ladner (2014), National policies may have some limiting effects on the rate at
which an individual takes part in his or her occupation. Cases like governments imposing
curfews in some parts of the country tend to have limiting effects on the people's freedom to
move from one place to another. The type of economy one operates in can also have some
controlling effects on a person. The people who operate in well-developed economies do have
plenty of options at their disposal as compared to individuals working in less developed states
(Johnston, Khalil, & Ming-Sung Cheng, 2018). Developed economies offer a wide range of
opportunities hence leave the trader with a wide area to apply rational thinking. Whereas another
business person is operating the same type of business but in a less developed economy may
have limited options to make a well-informed decision.
Another level in the context of participation tool comprises of determinants that are within the
control of an individual but are primarily class-based. These factors include the person's