Overcoming institutional and community resistance to a tardive dyskinesia management program

A growing body of research has examined psychiatry's previously hesitant response to the problem of tardive dyskinesia, but little has been said about resistance among institutions and communities to managing tardive dyskinesia. This paper describes how staff of a tardive dyskinesia management program overcame such resistance in both an inpatient and an outpatient setting and implemented tardive dyskinesia guidelines promulgated by an American Psychiatric Association task force in 1979. Through educational and liaison activities, the program staff overcame the fears of nurses and community sponsors of outpatients about reducing or withdrawing patients' neuroleptic medication. Implementation of the program required strong support from the hospital administration and an increase in communication between the various services and outpatient programs treating patients with tardive dyskinesia.