(Related Pages)

Guiding Principles

History and Overview Article by Mark Ragins

Comparison of Managed Care Models

Comparison of two Models Serving Adults with Psychiatric Disabilities 

Psychosocial Rehabilitation Circle

Treating our members as whole people, with a wide variety of interests and abilities, often resulted in the bafflement and confusion of Village consumers. They questioned the relevance of why we were asking questions about what they liked to do, what kinds of summer jobs they had, if any. Even worse, do you have many friends or would you like more? When we asked them if they liked their housing situation, they were patient with us but got very annoyed at our persistence about frequency of social contacts and often refused to continue answering questions. What were we doing nosing into their personal business when their problem was mental illness?

As time went on, it became clear that it wasn’t enough to ask people what they wanted needed-they needed to see a picture of what was possible. Many of their lives were almost completely contained by their illness and they didn’t even understand the possibilities of what their lives could look like. So it fell to staff to figure out ways to help them picture what it could be like- we have attempted to create a culture that focuses on life possibilities. To this end, we hang pictures on our walls celebrating members at work in the community or in school. We help facilitate social/ cultural experiences which may be completely new to them. One member said, " I never knew what was out there to do- I didn’t miss things like plays because I had no idea they existed or that I could get access to them."

Seeing individuals as whole people also means re-looking at how we think of symptoms and the illnesses they represent. From the very beginning of the project, we actively worked to regard symptoms as barriers which get in the way of whatever the individual wishes to achieve. The question, "What would you be doing if you didn’t have mental illness?" often turned out to be on of the most useful ways to help our members look beyond the voices they hear, to think outside the confines of their illness. This allowed us to do the same. It is extraordinarily liberating to work outside the bounds of what is wrong, and we found that pursuing goals with members and capitalizing on what is right with them frequently paid off with diminished symptoms and life accomplishments despite the remaining feature of illness.