Psychiatric rehabilitation in Europe

Abstract

To describe the core elements of modern psychiatric rehabilitation. Based on selected examples we describe the discussion about values in mental health care with focus on Europe. We present outcome data from studies, which have tried to implement care structures based on this value discussion. In the second half of the 20th century, mental health care in all European and other high-income countries changed conceptually and structurally. Deinstitutionalisation reduced the number of psychiatric beds and transferred priority to outpatient care and community-based services, but community mental health programs developed differently across and within these countries. High-income countries in Europe continued to invest in costly traditional services that were neither evidence-based nor person-centered by emphasising inpatient services, sheltered group homes and sheltered workshops. We argue that evidence-based, person-centred, recovery-oriented psychiatric rehabilitation offers a parsimonious solution to developing a consensus plan for community-based care in Europe. The challenges to scaling up effective psychiatric rehabilitation services in high-income countries are not primarily a lack of resources, but rather a lack of political will and inefficient use and dysfunctional allocation of resources.