Areas of skill training for persons with mental illness and substance use disorders: Building skills for successful community living

Conclusions The skills described in this article are by no means an exhaustive list. They do represent an organized set of behavioral, affective and cognitive skills which may serve a variety of purposes. Rehabilitation programs may use them to more clearly define their goals and shape their approaches to persons with dual disorders. Case managers may use them as a basis for building rehabilitation plans. Consumers can use this list to get their bearings regarding their own participation in treatment. Self-help groups may find these skills areas useful in developing their own unique perspectives on services to their recovering peers. Finally, vitally needed research efforts could find such a listing of skill areas useful in more systematically analyzing the black box of dual diagnosis programming for the purpose of measuring baselines and outcomes. Wouldn't it be nice if consumers and professionals spoke the same language and pursued similar results?