This report describes the qualitative component of a large-scale study of supported socialization. Paralleling the recent advances made through supported housing, supported employment, and supported education, this approach seeks to increase the involvement of individuals with psychiatric disabilities in naturally occurring social and recreational activities in community settings of their choice. After a review of social relationships and psychiatric disability, we describe the Partnership Project and present findings from a series of qualitative interviews conducted with a subsample of participants. We then discuss the implications of these findings for the community integration of individuals with psychiatric disabilities.
The authors hypothesized that schizophrenic communication disturbances reflect specific cognitive deficits in the areas of working memory and attention. They examined the cognitive correlates of communication disturbances, as measured by linguistic reference performance, in schizophrenic (n = 48), bipolar (n = 24), and nonpsychiatric control (n = 23) individuals. Reference performance ratings in the schizophrenic patients were associated with scores on tests of working memory and attention and were not related to performance on concept formation or verbal fluency tests. In contrast, in the bipolar and nonpsychiatric individuals, reference performance was associated with concept formation and verbal fluency test scores but was not related to performance on tests of working memory. Implications with respect to the processes underlying schizophrenic communication disturbances are discussed.
While mental health consumers have begun to assess the effectiveness of services they receive, they have yet to be included in the formulation of policies that determine the services and service systems to be developed in the future. This report examines consumer perspectives on the major policy direction of the past 40 years, deinstitutionalization, finding that a vast majority of consumers express a preference for community over hospital living. This examination identifies a number of complexities involved in the integration of consumer input into policy decisions. The authors suggest strategies to resolve these issues and highlight remaining questions concerning the role of consumer perspectives in the formulation of mental health policy.
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