[Evaluation of long-term effectiveness of a social reintegration program]

This study evaluates the impact of a rehabilitation program developed by a specific unit (304) of Louis H. Lafontaine Hospital to prepare severely disabled long-term psychiatric inpatients for discharge. Patients who participated in the program were evaluated three years after their discharge and compared to control patients paired to them by age, sex and years of hospitalization and discharged from other units of the hospital. The results suggest that the rehabilitation program, if coupled with an adequately staffed residential environment giving patients continuous care, offers a better outcome, at least in the case of the severely disabled long-term psychiatric inpatients.