Introduction to the Special Issue on Psychiatric Rehabilitation: Improving Recovery, Community Integration, and Quality of Life of Individuals with Severe Mental Illness

Abstract

Psychiatric rehabilitation encompasses three overarching goals: recovery, community integration, and quality of life. These goals set the precedent for providing treatment and care to individuals with severe mental illness (SMI). Recovery from SMI is a process. This process involves empowerment, self-determination, hope, and meaningful life roles for the individual with SMI. Rehabilitation counselors and allied professionals should assist in the process to the extent needed and desired by their clients. Through this partnership, individuals with SMI can begin to see improved psychiatric rehabilitation outcomes.Individuals with SMI experience the poorest rehabilitation outcomes when compared to all other disability groups (e.g., physical, sensory, cognitive). This may be because rehabilitation professionals have traditionally worked with people with non-psychiatric disabilities, and thus more is known about what works for them. Or it may be that individuals with SMI require more resources. Regardless of the reason, it is imperative that rehabilitation professionals are able to improve the rehabilitation outcomes of individuals with SMI, as they become a growing, and often time-intensive, part of their ever-growing caseloads. Disability and rehabilitation journals have targeted individuals with SMI as a population in need with their publications. For example, the Journal of Rehabilitation published a special issue focused on emerging issues within psychiatric rehabilitation (MacDonald-Wilson, McReynolds, & Accordino, 2009), and that same year, the Journal of Applied Rehabilitation Counseling published a special issue addressing subpopulations within psychiatric rehabilitation (McReynolds, Accordino, & MacDonaldWilson, 2009). Further noting the importance of this topic and the need for continual dissemination of information, Rehabilitation Research, Policy, and Education recently allowed for a special issue on psychiatric rehabilitation as well (Koch, Carey, & Lusk, 2016). The National Rehabilitation Counseling Association saw the need for additional research related to psychiatric rehabilitation and approved the current Special Issue of the Journal of Applied Rehabilitation Counseling to address recovery, community integration, and quality of life of individuals with SMI. In attempts to provide options and suggestions for improving psychiatric rehabilitation outcomes, this Special Issue will provide readers with information on the following general themes: (a) community integration, (b) physical and mental health and wellness, (c) vocational competency, (d) social support, and (e) acceptance of disability.The first article examines an instrument designed to capture community participation in individuals with SMI. Sanchez, Chan et al. (2016) validated an abbreviated and modified version of the Independent Living Skills Survey-Self Report (ILSS-SR; Wallace, Liberman, Tauber, & Wallace, 2000), the R-ILSS-SR. The authors discuss the relevant implications of their findings, and of the utility of the R-ILSS-SR in psychiatric rehabilitation treatment. In addition, Sanchez, Chan and colleagues investigated correlations between subscales of the ILSS-SR (R-ILSS-SR) and known predictors of community integration and participation, including social skills, resilience, social support, cognitive dysfunction, symptoms, and diagnosis. Results were found in the expected directions; social skills, resilience, and social support were positive predictors of participation, while cognitive dysfunction, symptoms, and diagnosis appeared to hinder participation. Furthermore, the authors suggest practical application of psychiatric rehabilitation techniques that can be incorporated to improve participation, thus improving recovery among individuals with SMI.In the second article, Bezyak, Clark, Chiu, Chan, and Testerman (2016) reported information collected via a comprehensive needs assessment from individuals with SMI. …