Involving Families in Psychosocial Rehabilitation

The Hamilton Program for Schizophrenia (HPS) is a community-based psychosocial rehabilitation and treatment program offering long-term case management services to young adults with schizophrenia. Families of clients are included whenever possible in the rehabilitation team, and support and educational services are provided for families. A program evaluation questionnaire completed by family members indicated a high level of family satisfaction with HPS. Increased satisfaction was associated with reduced caregiving worries and family burden. In general, family members wanted to be included in their ill relative's rehabilitation process. Participation helped family members meet their own needs and was related to greater satisfaction with service providers.