Effectiveness of a Psychiatric Rehabilitation Training Program for Community Services Staff

Abstract The implementation of a pilot-project for training community services staff in empirically-validated psychiatric rehabilitation techniques is described. Thirteen staff from six community settings were trained in how to conduct the UCLA Social and Independent Living Skills modules and Personal Effectiveness Training (PET) groups. The investigators report on the effectiveness of utilizing a brief seminar-type training format with one-year consultation follow-up. Results provide evidence for the effectiveness of such a training procedure. Specifically, results indicated that participants' knowledge of materials taught in the course increased and that during a three to twelve month post-training follow-up period, the number of new groups implemented increased substantially. The importance of designing similar training programs to disseminate psychiatric rehabilitation technologies to community settings is emphasized.