Recovery in Schizophrenia: What Consumers Know and Do Not Know.

The recovery model has permeated mental health systems by leading to the development of new psychiatric interventions and services and the reconfiguration of traditional ones. There is growing evidence that these interventions and services confer benefits in clinical and recovery-oriented outcomes. Despite the seeming adoption of recovery by policy makers, the transformation of mental health systems into recovery-oriented systems has been fraught with challenges.

A randomized study of cognitive remediation for forensic and mental health patients with schizophrenia.

Cognitive remediation has proven efficacy for improving neurocognition in people with schizophrenia. The current study evaluated the benefits of cognitive remediation on neurocognition, functioning, psychotic symptoms, and aggression in a sample of forensic and mental health patients. Care recipients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder (N = 78) receiving services in the forensic and mental health units of a state hospital were randomized to participate in cognitive remediation versus computer games control activities. Participants' neurocognition, functional capacity, experiential recovery, psychotic symptoms, and aggression incidents were assessed at baseline and posttreatment. Cognitive remediation was associated with improvements in several neurocognitive domains and circumscribed domains of functional capacity. People assigned to cognitive remediation experiences greater reductions in negative symptoms, agitation/excitement, and verbal and physical aggression. In addition to improving neurocognition in long-term hospitalized forensic and mental health patients, cognitive remediation may enhance efforts at reducing negative symptoms, emotion dysregulation, and aggression incidents. Forensic settings may represent a new frontier for the clinical dissemination of cognitive remediation.

The professional experiences of peer specialists in the Georgia Mental Health Consumer Network.

There has been an increase in the number of peer-led services within the mental health care system. There however remains little information about the experiences of peers serving in such helping roles. This study explored the professional experiences of peer specialists including the basic roles, benefits, and potential challenges of the peer specialist role. Peer specialists (N = 84) completed a battery of surveys and questionnaires. Qualitative analysis of participants' responses indicated that peer specialists face difficulties such as poor compensation, limited employment opportunities, work stress, emotional stress in helping others, and maintaining personal wellness. Quantitative analyses revealed that recovery attitudes may confer clinical and psychosocial benefits for peer specialists and employment may contribute to hope, empowerment, social engagement, and competence. Peer specialists would benefit from resources and supports aimed at their continued training and supervision. Fostering the vocational advancement of peer specialists could potentially enhance their experiential recovery and community functioning.