The feasibility of vocational rehabilitation in subjects with severe mental illness

Vocational rehabilitation represents an important elementwithin the mental health care system. To ensure the successof rehabilitation, programs of varying degrees of complexityare needed in order to meet patients´ abilities and needs.Rehabilitation success must be examined multidimensionallyand not be reduced to the mere integration into competitiveemployment. Success is also represented by progress in thelevel of vocational integration, strengthening of work capabilities,the improvement of the functional level, and in a betterquality of life. The patient´s need for rehabilitation has to berecognized as early as possible to shorten the duration ofthe patient´s disintegration and to avoid stagnation periods.Rehabilitation needs to start in the clinic; with psychiatrichelp sustained during the rehabilitation process to preventillness exacerbation and premature program termination.The patient´s development regarding his or her functionallevel, work capability, and subjective wellbeing needs to beevaluated throughout the program to consistently monitorthe patient´s individual needs and abilities and to ensureappropriate support. Training for cognition and social skillsshould be integrated into rehabilitation programs to compensateindividual deficits.