Psychosocial Rehabilitation: Treatment, Cost and Side Effects

There is a range of psychosocial disorders that might affect a person, from manic depression to bipolar disorder. According to popular belief it is very difficult to treat psychosocial disorders. But that is not true. Psychosocial rehabilitation is a consolidated approach that aims to treat people with psychological difficulties.

The basic problem of a person suffering from psychological ailments is that he/she finds difficulty in coping up in a social setting. Psychosocial rehabilitation helps the person to recover on an individual as well as social level. For example, a person with acute depression suffers from withdrawal syndrome. With psychosocial rehabilitation the person would overcome his/her inclination towards self-alienation.

Psychosocial rehabilitation not only improves a person’s psychological standing. It also helps a person to develop skills that are used in various platforms such as employment, education, primary living skills etc. It makes the person more family and community oriented.

The best thing about this intervention procedure is that, instead of focusing on the weaknesses and impairments of a patient, the approach puts major emphasis on an individual’s strengths and aims at developing those. This approach should be available to all those who are suffering from long-term mental disorders, owing to its effectiveness and a positive perspective on the recovery angle.

Psychosocial Rehabilitation implements primarily two interventional strategies.

Psychological Rehabilitation focuses on the notion that an individual’s action and adaptability is directly associated with his/her immediate environment. Owing to this notion, the first strategy of psychosocial rehabilitation deals with developing the person’s skills so that he/she can cope positively with his/her environment. The second strategy is closely intertwined with this approach in that it helps the individual to use the environmental resources that will lead to the development of a sound relationship between the man and his environment.

There are some environmental factors that trigger a person with mental illness, for example, a psychotic person, to act in a hostile manner. These factors are called stressors. On the other hand there are some environmental factors that work as positive stimulants. The aim of psychosocial rehabilitation is to filter out these stressors or barriers and give way to the inflow of more environmental factors in the sufferer’s life that bring forth a positive behavior.

According to human psychology everybody has a part of the ego that remains intact. The objective of Psychosocial Rehabilitation treatment is to strengthen the positive qualities of an individual so that he/she can function better in his/her social set up. In other words, patient here learn to live with the disabilities.

Psychosocial Rehabilitation is recommended to people with Schizophrenia, because most of the people who suffer from mental illness have this disorder. However, the field of Psychosocial Rehabilitation is very wide and it encompasses patients with psychotic and non-psychotic disorders as well.

Patients who are not suffering from severe mental illness might not require Psychosocial Rehabilitation. In those cases outpatient treatments and medicines might suffice. This treatment depends on the intensity of the mental illness and whether a person needs it or not is assessed by the concerned psychiatrist.

No, there are no known side effects of Psychosocial Rehabilitation.

Whatever skills a patient learns during rehabilitation must be implemented in his/her daily life after he/she is discharged from the rehab. The patient’s family or immediate relatives must help him/her in finding the way around those skills. The ultimate objective of Psychosocial Rehabilitation is to make the patient function in spite of his/her disabilities in a social environment. In a rehab the patient, therefore, is given training in the domains of education, environment and profession. After life in rehab the patient must motivate himself/herself to work, build relationships and maintain those relationships to regain mental stability. The patient’s near and dear ones can best help him/her achieve these goals.

Recovery time depends on the intensity of the mental illness. In most cases improvement is observed within 8 months from the day the treatment begins. If the patient reacts positively to psychosocial intervention, it takes not more than 2 years for him/her to observe improvement.

Psychosocial rehabilitation aims at teaching the patient to cope with his/her environment in spite of the disabilities. In that, the patient learns to ignore the difficulties and concentrate more on what he/she can do and bettering those aptitudes. Therefore, a person with schizophrenia would not see his/her mental disorder disappear magically. It is just that he/she will be able to manage that condition. With motivation and support from family members a person can function in a social milieu soundly for a long time to come after psychosocial rehabilitation.

There are various alternative treatments for mental disorders that aim to rejuvenate the mind and body of the person through self-calming regimes, such as Tai Chi, Yoga, meditation and exercise.

Acupressure is another alternative therapy that helps to treat mental disorders like ADHD and anxiety.

Equine therapy or horse therapy is a treatment where the person is taught to tend and groom horses. Practitioners of this therapy believe that emotional attachment with an animal will create a positive impact on the patient’s mental health.