Don't get bugged: practical strategies for managing bedbug infestation in psychiatric rehabilitation programs.

Bedbug infestation has become a major problem in the United States. Infestations can be frightening and expensive and appear to be more prevalent in urban settings and low-income housing such as homeless shelters, public housing, and single-room occupancy apartments. This exposes consumers and staff of psychiatric rehabilitation agencies to higher risk of infestation. This brief report outlines practical suggestions for managing bedbug infestation in such agencies. Drawing on resources readily available on the Internet and the experience of Thresholds, a large provider of psychiatric rehabilitation services based in Chicago, this report describes strategies for responding to infestation. Providers need to assume that bedbug infestation is a significant risk and prepare accordingly. Assertive, persistent, and calm response is recommended.

Promoting self-determination and financial security through innovative asset building approaches.

TOPIC: Studies indicate that asset development programs such as Individual Development Accounts (IDAs) can enhance the economic security of low-income populations; however, only a handful of asset development programs have been implemented specifically to serve people with psychiatric disabilities, and larger programs have not collected disability-specific information. PURPOSE: The purpose of this article is to increase our knowledge about the use of IDAs to enhance self-determination and recovery for people with psychiatric disabilities. SOURCES USED: Background information about IDAs is presented followed by case studies of two IDA programs that serve people with psychiatric disabilities. CONCLUSIONS: The use of IDA programs in enhancing self-determination among people with psychiatric disabilities is discussed, along with barriers and future directions.

The relationship between staff tenure and client satisfaction in psychosocial rehabilitation programs.

A study conducted at Vinfen, a large Massachusetts-based provider of psychosocial rehabilitation services, sheds new light on staff tenure and its relationship to participant satisfaction. The researchers surveyed participant satisfaction in forty-six residential sites serving people with psychiatric disabilities. The study included client and staff demographics. The researchers correlated average participant satisfaction score and average staff tenure by program. The results of the study did not support the widely held belief that there is a relationship between staff tenure and participant satisfaction in residential programs.

The Thresholds-Dartmouth partnership and research on shared decision making.

Thresholds Rehabilitation Centers is one of the largest providers of psychiatric rehabilitation services in the United States, and the Dartmouth Psychiatric Research Center is a highly regarded team of rehabilitation researchers. This column describes efforts to build upon the long-standing collaborative relationship between Thresholds (community partner) and Dartmouth (academic partner) to implement and study shared decision making in a community mental health care setting that serves an ethnoracially diverse population. Shared decision making encompasses a client-centered approach in which client and practitioner are equal partners. This joint project incorporates modern information technology, decision science, cultural competence, stakeholder collaboration, outcomes research, and training. The partnership itself provides an exemplar of shared decision making.

How evidence-based practices contribute to community integration.

Since the groundbreaking work of the Robert Wood Johnson Conference in 1998 identifying six evidence-based practices (EBPs) for people with severe mental illness (SMI), the mental health field has moved in the direction of re-examination and redesign of service systems. Surprisingly, one area that has not been fully explicated is the role that EBPs play in promoting community integration. In this paper, we explain how community integration is a unifying concept providing direction and vision for community mental health for people with SMI. As one crucial aspect of the recovery process, community integration clarifies the link between EBPs and recovery. We propose an alternate view, grounded in the empirical literature, to the assertion by Anthony, Rogers, and Farkas [2003, Community Mental Health Journal, 39, 101-114] that "EBP research has rarely demonstrated a positive impact on recovery related outcomes."