New opportunities for the resocialization of mental patients

Abstract

Pursuing the goal of systematizing the many years of experience of the activity of the New Opportunities All-Russia Public Organization of the Mentally Disabled, we look at the forms in which patients and their families participate in the system of psychosocial rehabilitation (socialization). The New Opportunities Public Organization, which unites patients and their relatives in over 50 regions of Russia, operates within the current model of managed psychiatric care and relies on public resources. We summarize the main areas of the activity of this Organization (psychoeducation, supported employment and housing, studying the patients’ attitude toward illness and treatment), and point out the extant problems.