With more effective medications and improved diagnosis, adults with psychiatric disabilities are increasingly able to pursue desired personal and career goals in their communities. Optimizing the functioning of these individuals requires rehabilitation methods so individuals can acquire skills and knowledge to minimize their disability, and environmental supports to assist them in carrying out their goals. More and more innovative models for psychosocial rehabilitation (PSR) are entering the practice field. Research has shown that PSR services are effective, often producing more normalized role functioning for the majority of service recipients. Thus, psychosocial rehabilitation is congruent with social work’s increased emphasis on evidence-based practice. Furthermore, PSR values (hope, normalization, engagement in meaningful activity, self-determination, building supports and relationships, and systems change) reflect the social justice mission of social work and its ecological focus, as persons with mental illness continue to be the most stigmatized of the disability groups.

This symposium presents social work research conducted with adults with serious mental illnesses. Each paper has implications for improving PSR practice. The first presentation is an analysis of data on the predictors of self-assessed health status among individuals with serious mental illnesses and suggests how PSR programs need to address barriers to health care access. The second paper is a qualitative study of the relationship between mental health problem-solving strategies, caregiver practices, and consumers’ experiences of recovery. The analyses have implications for case management training. The third presentation identifies characteristics of PSR treatment environments which affect consumers’ self-efficacy and behavioral coping. The final paper reports results from a study to develop and validate fidelity criteria (critical ingredients) for consumer-run drop-in centers.

As mental health continues to be a dominant field of service for professional social work practice, we conclude with a discussion of why psychosocial rehabilitation is important to social work and how social work research and education can increase the effective use of this evidence based practice to maximize opportunities for consumers with mental illnesses.