Mental health consumers as case management aides.

Mental health consumers with chronic mental illness were trained for employment as case management aides in a psychiatric rehabilitation project in Denver. The project incorporated cooperative arrangements between the mental health system and vocational rehabilitation and occupational education agencies. The process used to recruit, select, train, and employ the consumer case management aides is described. Eighteen of the 25 trainees who began the training completed the program, and 17 moved on to employment as case management aides. At two-year follow-up, the 15 trainees who were still employed as case management aides had required a total of only two bed-days of psychiatric hospitalization since the training ended.