Preliminary results from an Australian psychosocial rehabilitation program for people with serious mental illness

Psychosocial rehabilitation, for those with a serious mental illness, is of significant importance due to both its frequency and cost to government. This paper describes the implementation and preliminary assessments of a new psychosocial rehabilitation program in New South Wales. Of particular urgency was the requirement to establish baseline measures for ongoing service evaluation at the unit. An extensive array of assessment tools (Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale, BPRS; Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms, SANS; Quality Of Life Scale, QOLS) was applied to determine the functioning of clients prior to the program. Following the initial assessments, subsequent measures were undertaken on completion of the program and then at 1 year follow-up. It was hypothesized that the clients would demonstrate significant improvements on these measures with a reduction in their psychopathology as assessed by the BPRS, improvement in their quality-of-life as measured by the QOLS and improvement in their negative symptoms as measured by the SANS. The final outcome demonstrated improvement in the assessment scores by 34%. A positive correlation to the above results showed a 54% reduction in the re-admission rate of clients and length of stay in hospital. The paper describes further developments regarding this psychosocial rehabilitation unit and suggests other psychosocial rehabilitation initiatives.