A Rehabilitation Response to the Call for Asylum

Recently, the Schizophrenia Bulletin published an article on the concept of "asylum" for the mentally ill (Wasow 1986). This concept of asylum, while based on a desire to protect people with psychiatric disabilities, is too vague to be useful and is politically dangerous. As a response to currently inadequate community service systems, it fails to take into account the empirical evidence of effectiveness of community support and rehabilitation programs and ignores the larger social responsibility to provide stable housing, employment, and other necessities to these individuals. Finally, it conflicts with the desires of psychiatrically disabled persons themselves. There is a need for aggressive development of community support and rehabilitation services, greater attention to the stated desires of mental health consumers, and continuing research into program effectiveness.