title: A collaborative rehabilitation approach to the improvement of inpatient treatment for persons with a psychiatric disability.
abstract: With the growth of community support programs the role of the state psychiatric hospital has changed. Reduced funding levels have resulted in overcrowding, inadequate staffing and ineffective programming. In order to improve the quality of care and introduce more psychiatric rehabilitation-oriented activities into hospital programming, a large state hospital and a state health sciences university have entered into a time-limited collaborative partnership. This paper describes that partnership and its attempt to improve staff competencies, enhance service delivery and integrate a more rehabilitation-oriented philosophy of care into the hospital through undergraduate education, in-service training, program development, staff mentoring and organizational change activities.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatric Rehabilitation, The University of Medicine and Dentistry, Scotch Plains, NJ 07076, USA. birkmajc@umdnj.edu
authors.forename: Joseph C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Birkmann
authors.forename: Jennifer S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Sperduto
authors.forename: Russell C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: Kenneth J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Gill
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D005260:Female; D006282:Health Personnel / Q000193:education; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D008605:Mental Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D008875:Middle Aged; D015279:Organizational Culture; D010348:Patient Care Team; D016730:Program Development; D012494:Sampling Studies; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States