Evaluation of an Inpatient Program Aimed at Preparing “Hard-to-Place” Chronically Mentally Ill for the Community

Abstract

A program designed to prepare long‐stay “hard‐to‐place” psychiatric inpatients for successful community placement was evaluated. Fifteen patients in the Intensive Learning Center (ILC) program were assessed at 5‐ and 10‐month intervals following baseline. In addition, their functioning was compared to a criterion related comparison group of 26 patients who had been transferred to community placements 18 months earlier. Two informant driven measures were used: The Rehabilitation Evaluation of Hall and Baker (REHAB), (Baker & Hall, 1988) and, Adaptive Behavior Scale (ABS), (Nihira, Foster, Shellhaas, & Leland, 1975). The results indicated significant improvement in the ILC patients adaptive functioning after 5 months, but this improvement was not consistently sustained at the 10 month follow‐up. Comparisons between the ILC and community groups were made at 10 months and suggested considerable overlap in functioning between the two groups. The implications of the findings for program development and implementation as well as for discharge planning are discussed.