Towards an integrated, structural model of psychiatric rehabilitation

In the past two decades, the number of principles and approaches that have been touted as psychiatric rehabilitation have overwhelmed the service provider. As a result, the field seems to be bombarded by contradictory ideas. In this paper, I seek to resolve this problem by providing an overview of psychiatric rehabilitation in terms of four key structures: goals (the reasons why people with psychiatric disabilities seek rehabilitation), strategies (the tools which service providers might use to help consumers reach their goals), settings (the places in which providers and consumers use these tools), and roles (the variety of professional and personal backgrounds which influence providers in carrying out their duties). In this paper, I review the research literature that has identified relevant examples of each of these structural dimensions. This description of psychiatric rehabilitation is based on a two-factor model of the life challenges that arise from mental illness: the disabilities produced by the disease and the loss of opportunity that result from stigma and discrimination. The paper also includes a brief discussion of the two-factor model.