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Electronic Letters to:

Original papers: Martin Commander and Dharjinder Rooprai Survey of long-stay patients on acute psychiatric wards Psychiatr Bull 2008; 32: 380-383 [Abstract] [Full text] [PDF]

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Rehabilitation teams and resettlement

David Abrahamson, Rose Hilliar, Associate Specialist, Geraldine Godin, CPN and Clinical Lead, and Bibi Rajoo CPN, East London NHS Foundation Trust Rehabilitation and Recovery Team   (23 November 2008)

Rehabilitation teams and resettlement 23 November 2008
David Abrahamson, Consultant Psychiatrist Newham rehabilitation service (1972-2002), Rose Hilliar, Associate Specialist, Geraldine Godin, CPN and Clinical Lead, and Bibi Rajoo CPN, East London NHS Foundation Trust Rehabilitation and Recovery Team Send letter to journal: Re: Rehabilitation teams and resettlement dabrah9548{at}aol.com David Abrahamson, et al.	Commander and Rooprai (Psychiatric Bulletin October 2008, 32, 380- 383) draw attention to the importance of specialist rehabilitation teams for successful resettlement from acute hospital wards. Experience with one such team in another socially deprived, multi-ethnic inner-city area over more than 20 years fully supports their conclusions. Rehabilitation teams can ensure resettlement is more than freeing beds. Over this period, the team has supported preparation-for-discharge houses that provide humane alternatives to wards and are a portal to long- term rehabilitation and recovery. Initially situated on a hospital campus and later in the community, they enhance domestic and social skills and inform assessments and patient choice. The network of staffed and supported housing (increasingly the latter) to which their residents have access is also actively supported by the rehabilitation team, greatly easing transitions and ensuring the continuity that is now often confined to such teams (Abrahamson, 1993). In addition, the team runs a combined group and individual out- patient clinic for resettled and other long-term patients. This facilitates its other clinical and support work, enlightens staff-patient relationships and adds a peer support dimension that is also evident in the social club that developed from it (Abrahamson & Fellow-Smith, 1991). The extra options these provide are clearly enjoyed by even the most withdrawn patients, who are particularly at risk of isolation ‘in the community’. Official commitment to rehabilitation teams has nationally been intermittent and variable and needs to be settled and explicit. ABRAHAMSON,D. (1993) Housing and Deinstitutionalisation : theory and practice in the development of a rehabilitation service. In: Dimensions of community mental health care. London: W.B. Saunders Company Ltd. ABRAHAMSON, D. & FELLOW-SMITH, E. (1991) A combined group and individual long-term out-patient clinic. British Journal of Psychiatry, 15: 486 487.