Refocusing the training of psychiatric rehabilitation staff

The authors describe an approach to training staff in psychiatric rehabilitation programs that is based on principles of organizational psychology. The approach promotes two shifts in the focus of training. First, training efforts should not only educate individual staff members about state-of-the-art rehabilitation skills but also organize the treatment team into a system that will consistently carry out these skills. Second, training should help the team develop user-friendly programs rather than insisting on faithful implementation of state-of-the-art interventions. A four-phase, eight-step training method called interactive staff training that can help programs achieve these goals is presented. The first phase involves obtaining administrative support for change, assessing staff needs, and forming a program committee. In the second phase, staff participate in decision making about program components, and a facilitator conducts sessions to reach consensus on a draft program. A pilot program is implemented and evaluated in the third phase. In the final phase, a user-friendly program is maintained through continuous quality improvement.