Community residential options for the chronically mentally ill.

We have discussed the problems of the new young chronic patients, deinstitutionalized old chronic patients now living in the community, and some of the groups of hard to place patients. We have talked about problems with community barriers, staff training, a spectrum of facilities, and we have looked at what new sorts of facilities may need to be developed. It seems clear that we have not yet developed a spectrum which can deal with all varieties of the chronically mentally ill. Pepper (1985) has suggested a different, more ideal spectrum of housing particularly suited to the young adult chronic patient. These include crisis residences, supervised 14-bed residences, growth house for 14 beds; support house for 14 beds; supervised apartments (satellite apartments), 14 beds; supportive apartments, 14 beds; (these have less intensive staffing than supervised ones); open community living; and residential congregate care for adults (RCCAs). These RCCAs are large facilities located either in old state hospitals or nursing homes which are primarily oriented towards the homeless mentally ill. According to Pepper, if a program can plan a spectrum of housing situations in the immediate catchment area, it can then actually meet the specific needs of each patient with a specific sort of residential facility. The challenge for community residences is certainly much greater than a decade ago and, with the homeless mentally ill population continuing to grow (Bachrach, 1985), one might be tempted to regard our present situation as one of crisis proportions. Clearly, there is little doubt that a need exists for a wide spectrum of living situations to be made available to the deinstitutionalized or never institutionalized young adult chronic patient. Yet very few incentives exist for those who would try to meet this challenge. To do this effectively will undoubtedly require the development of sizeable amounts of public funding through existing and new channels to provide support for a variety of new types of community living arrangements with varying degrees of structure and treatment. There is also a great need for continued educating of the community about the realities of treating chronic mental patients in tailored facilities who must be protected from harming themselves or others. Finally, we in the field need better continuing education for ourselves and for those staff working in the residential area. Most of us don't ever learn about how to operate outside of our offices.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)