Using written communication with patient groups to promote behavioral change in chronic mentally ill patients

Patient-managed problem-solving groups have been used in inpatient settings to increase the responsible activity of patients with chronic mental illness. In a study using a repeated measures design, staff prepared written notes describing patients' adherence to programmatic expectations and submitted them to patient-managed problem-solving groups, which recommended consequences for patients' behavior. The intervention increased the frequency of targeted behavior compared with the frequency of the behavior during baseline periods. The authors suggest that this procedure may be applied to a variety of behaviors in other treatment settings.