Psychiatric Rehabilitation Day Program Design

Class Exercises
Exercise 1
Psychiatric Rehabilitation Day Program Design Activity

This exercise can be done individually or with groups of students working together, imagining
they are assigned to a committee to redesign a day program. In either case, think about the
philosophy or approach you wish to implement. Then decide what your choices would be on
the following nine variables that will determine how your program functions:

1. Member/Staff Ratio—This may range from very low (e.g., 4 members/1 staff ) to high
(e.g., 16 members/1 staff) depending on the type and philosophy of the program.

2. Program Size—May vary from a small (e.g., 25 members) to a very large (hundreds of
members) program.

3. Staffing—May vary from being predominantly paraprofessional staff (less than a college
degree) to predominantly professional (graduate degree).

4. Staffing Pattern—May vary from being a generalist pattern where staff carry out multiple
roles with little regard for academic or professional credentials to a specialist staffing
pattern in which staff carry out specified organizational or professional roles.

5. Attendance Requirements—May vary from laissez-faire (consumers attend when they
wish) to strict and mandatory (similar to a regular work environment).

6. Scheduled Program Time—May be loose, varied, and flexible or may approximate
a typical work environment.

7. Treatment Focus—May vary from no treatment other than concrete feedback about the
task at hand to intensive and frequent group and individual therapy.

8. Program Ingredients—May offer differing amounts (from none to all day) of recreation,
socialization, supportive individual and/or group therapy, expressive therapies (e.g.,
art or dance), pre-vocational skills training, specific skills training, work units, and
transitional or supported employment. These ingredients should be offered in an
internally consistent pattern with respect to program type and philosophy.

9. Empowerment—Programs range from being run by consumers to being totally
controlled by the staff. Clues to the degree of empowerment in a particular program might
be the degree of authority wielded by a member government, the presence of members in
important meetings, and the ability of members to shape both their individual treatment
plans and the program in ways important to them.