Growing with people with a psychiatric disability in a psychosocial rehabilitation program

The service needs of people with schizophrenia change during the process of recovery, and rehabilitation programs should be prepared to address these changing needs. A community-based psychosocial rehabilitation and treatment program is described, which offers long-term case management services to adults with schizophrenia. Since its inception in 1977, this program has evolved from providing intensive case management to providing a continum of services to meet the changing needs of all people with a psychiatric disability. Psychiatric rehabilitation technology is used to set rehabilitation goals successfully for interested individuals. When service utilization was measured prospectively for a three-year period, a reduction is general case management time was seen, with a concomitant increase in psychiatric rehabilitation time. Quality of life and symptom measures improved over the same time period. When programs evolve to meet the changing service needs of people with a psychiatric disability, continued improvement in outcome measures can be seen.