Teaching Spanish to veterans with psychiatric disabilities: A creative approach to rehabilitation and recovery.
OBJECTIVE
A Spanish course was heuristically designed to serve as a context to bring together components of various therapies and was offered to veterans with psychiatric disabilities enrolled in a psychosocial rehabilitation and recovery center.


OBJECTIVE
Bilingualism has been associated with enhanced cognitive function and deserves more attention in psychiatric rehabilitation research. Developing opportunities for language instruction to potentially improve cognitive and community integration is explored.


METHODS
Relevant studies were reviewed to inform the design of the Spanish course and feedback was elicited from veterans who took the course.


CONCLUSIONS
Dialoguing with veterans can yield innovative and recovery-oriented changes to services, and may increase consumer satisfaction. Since leisure, social, and educational activities can draw from a person's interests and strengths, incorporating elements of therapies into these activities may create less stigmatizing and more engaging forms of treatment.
Veteran Affairs San Diego Healthcare System.
Hans
H
Oh
Veteran Affairs San Diego Healthcare System.
Yuliana E
YE
Gallegos Rodríguez
Veteran Affairs San Diego Healthcare System.
Fiza
F
Singh
D000328:Adult; D006801:Humans; D007803:Language Arts; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D000067250:Psychiatric Rehabilitation / Q000379:methods*; D011613:Psychotherapy / Q000379:methods*; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014728:Veterans / Q000523:psychology*