Family Fellowship Society for Psychosocial Rehabilitation Services (1993-2019): A Self-help Movement

Family Fellowship Society for Psychosocial Rehabilitation Services is an initiative of families of persons with mental illness and with psychiatric disabilities. It has been advocating self-help movement on the part of the families who have been on the lookout for alternative care services. This venture has been technically supported by the mental health professionals at National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bangalore. It is a collaborative effort of families and professionals to address the needs that have been felt by the consumers and the professionals. It is the first of its kind in India. Over a period of 26 years, 150 + families have availed the alternative care for psychosocial rehabilitation services for their wards. In this context, an attempt was made to enlighten the psychosocial rehabilitation services at family fellowship society.

Social Group Work with Adults having Intellectual Disabilities

Social group work is considered as a viable treatment modality for adults with intellectual developmental disabilities. This paper demonstrates the usefulness of conducting social group work for adults having developmental disabilities. The authors share their experience of conducting group work with them at psychiatric rehabilitation center in a tertiary care hospital. This article gives a brief description of group work which used to aid adults with intellectual disabilities in their activities of daily living, working, and learning situations.

Utilization of psychiatric rehabilitation services and influencing factors among people with psychotic disorders in rural communities of Guangxi, China

Objectives

To identify the rate and predictors of utilization of rehabilitation services among people with psychotic disorders in rural communities of Guangxi.

Study design

A cross-sectional survey was conducted among individuals with schizophrenia or other psychoses (severe mental disorder, ICD10: F20–F29), aged over 15 years, and their care-givers in Guangxi, China. Trained village doctors located individuals known to them and suspected as having schizophrenia or other psychoses within the target areas and recruited them into the study. Data on demographic characteristics, clinical symptoms and functions, treatment history, and reasons, if any, for non-utilization of mental health service were collected. Logistic regression was used to determine associated factors for utilization of mental health services.

Results

A total of 424 individuals experiencing psychosis (mean age 41.4 ± 13.0 years, 60.6% male) and 319 caregivers (mean age 55.3 ± 14.2 years) were interviewed. The median duration of disease was 13.4 years. 83.0% of patients had never used rehabilitation services. Greater use of rehabilitation was associated with having a non-organic disorder (OR = 11.6, 95% CI = 1.6–86.0) and living with a caregivers (OR = 3.2, 95% CI = 1.2–8.3). The top three reasons for not using rehabilitation services were lack of awareness (57.1%), lack of money (14.2%) and lack of belief in the service (12.8%).

Conclusions

These findings indicate a high unmet need for psychiatric rehabilitation services among people with psychotic disorders in rural areas of Guangxi. Strategies such as outreach programme and collaborative and partnership network with the local community are needed to encourage people with psychotic disorders in rural communities to increase their utilization of rehabilitation services.

Relationship Between Psychiatric-Service Consumers' and Providers' Goal Concordance and Consumers' Personal Goal Attainment

OBJECTIVE

This study tested concordance between consumers' and providers' reports of personal goal setting and its relationship to self-reported goal attainment.

METHODS

Data are from the Israeli Psychiatric Rehabilitation Patient Reported Outcome Measurement project. Consumers (N=2,885) and the providers who were most knowledgeable about their care indicated two domains from a list of ten in which consumers had set goals during the previous year. Consumers reported on goal attainment in each domain.

RESULTS

A total of 2,345 consumers (82%) reported a personal goal. Overall, consumer-provider concordance reached 54%. Concordance was greatest in the employment (76%), housing (71%), and intimate relationship (52%) domains and lowest in family relationships (23%) and finances (15%). For most domains, concordance was less than 50%. On average, 75% of consumers reported having achieved their goals. Consumer-provider concordance was associated with goal attainment (p<.001).

CONCLUSIONS

These findings emphasize the importance of agreed-upon goals and call for conceptualizing goal setting as an interpersonal process central to recovery.

A strengths-based case management service for people with serious mental illness in Israel: A randomized controlled trial

Case management services for people with serious mental illness are generally found to be effective, but controlled and randomized studies assessing such services are scarce. The aim of the present study was to assess the effectiveness of a new strengths-based case management (SBCM) service in Israel, using a randomized controlled approach. The sample consisted of 1276 individuals with serious mental illness, who consume psychiatric rehabilitation services (PRS) in the community, and were randomly assigned to receive or not to receive the SBCM service in addition to treatment-as-usual PRS. Quality of life, goal setting and attainment, unmet needs, self-efficacy, interpersonal relationships, symptom severity, and service utilization were assessed by clients at onset and after 20 months. Results show that SBCM participants improved in self-efficacy, unmet needs, and general quality of life, and set more goals than the control group. SBCM participants also consumed fewer services at follow-up. Results suggest that SBCM services are effective in helping individuals with serious mental illness set personal goals and use PRS in a better and more focused manner.