Team case management of chronically mentally ill veterans: a group therapy approach

This article describes a team case management model using a group therapy approach developed and implemented for chronically mentally ill veterans. The model was developed to address inadequacies in the system and to provide mentally ill veterans with more frequent interventions and an organized support system to maintain them in the community. Two hundred seventy-five patients enrolled in the case management system attend weekly groups led by two or three interdisciplinary staff. In addition to serving as primary therapists and case managers, the interdisciplinary staff broker services, linking patients with needed services within the Veterans Affairs system and the community. The results indicate that the case management model has improved the lives of those enrolled by improving quality of life, medication and treatment compliance, social relationships, and general well-being. Use of emergency room services has decreased, as well as psychiatric symptomatology. For some diagnostic categories, the number of hospital readmissions and days hospitalized also decreased.