Inpatient psychosocial rehabilitation in rural NSW: assessment of clinically significant change for people with severe mental illness.
OBJECTIVE
The aim of the present study was to describe an inpatient psychosocial rehabilitation programme in rural New South Wales and to assess the effectiveness of the programme using measures of clinically significant change.


METHODS
The first 88 patients with a schizophrenia spectrum disorder to enter the Manara Clinic and Turon House, New South Wales, psychosocial rehabilitation programmes were assessed at admission and discharge using the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale, the Health of the Nation Outcome Scales, and the Kessler-10 self-report measure.


RESULTS
Significant improvements in psychiatric symptomatology, psychosocial functioning, and psychological distress were found over the course of the inpatient stay. Clinical significance analyses using patients in the community as the reference group indicated a reliable and clinically significant improvement for 33% of inpatients on psychiatric symptomatology, 39% of inpatients on psychosocial functioning, and 21% of inpatients on psychological distress.


CONCLUSIONS
The psychosocial rehabilitation programme provides clinically significant initial benefits for patients with severe mental illnesses. More attention needs to be paid to evaluating which components of psychosocial rehabilitation contribute most to these benefits. Follow-up evaluation is required to determine whether the benefits of this programme are sustained in the community.
Murugesan
Ganapathi
G
Bloomfield Hospital, Greater Western Area Health Service, Orange, NSW, 2800, Australia. ganapathi.murugesan@gwahs.health.nsw.gov.au
Jeffrey
Robyn
R
Amey
Carlene G
CG
Deane
Frank P
FP
Kelly
Brian
B
Stain
Helen
H
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D010054:Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology* / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D008605:Mental Health Services / Q000592:standards; D008875:Middle Aged; D009517:New South Wales / Q000453:epidemiology; D010343:Patient Admission / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011584:Psychology; D011613:Psychotherapy / Q000379:methods*; D012424:Rural Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D016896:Treatment Outcome