Training chronic mental patients to independently practice personal grooming skills.

Schizophrenic patients typically have poor grooming and self-care skills, which hinder their social relationships and their chances of successful adaptation in the community. A practical and inexpensive program for teaching grooming skills to hospitalized chronic mental patients has been developed in a California state hospital. Patients are also taught to evaluate their grooming behavior and to carry out grooming activities independently. Grooming deficits and improvements are rated on an 11-category performance checklist. Two small-scale pilot studies showed that the program is efficacious and that nursing staff can effectively apply the procedures; in another study, the program was implemented on a large psychiatric unit with minimal staffing and resources.