[Profit sharing: a psychiatric management strategy]

This paper outlines the development and implementation of profit sharing, an innovative technique to motivate and empower chronically mentally ill members of a psychiatric rehabilitation program. In some ways, this intervention resembles a token economy. Members are paid script for program participation, which they then exchange for rewards. In contrast to token economies, however, the profit sharing system is financed, administered and monitored by program members. This method has the advantage of enhancing program participation and involvement by allowing members to keep the rewards earned through their own efforts. Data collected over a five-year period suggest that profit sharing increases program utilization, average daily attendance and the number of positive vocational outcomes.