Rehabilitation Journal

Assignment 1 – Individual Journal

The following articles that I have chosen to review for this assignment all have some relevancy to the area of rehabilitation and case management, however are directly involved within the area of Psychology and mental illness. Having completed my undergraduate degree within this area, I was interested to research psychological journal articles which had some relevance to the area of vocational rehabilitation. Being new within the industry, I was keen to see where the area of psychology and vocational rehabilitation overlap, and perhaps gain some insight into how vocational rehabilitation can improve the lives of those suffering from some form of psychological disorder. In conjunction with this, I was also interested in looking at how psychological research could help to influence the way in which our service delivery models are shaped within the vocational rehabilitation arena.

Article 1

Hopkins, M. & Ramsundar N. (2006) Which factors predict case management services and how do these services relate to client outcomes? Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal, v 29(3), p 219-222

This study investigated factors that predicted case management services and which of these services predicted outcomes for thirty participants with schizophrenia. The individual clients’ characteristics as well the quality of the relationship between the two were investigated. The results showed that the quality of the working relationship between the case manager and the client was a good predictor of obtaining eventual outcomes. The study showed that when the frequency with which the clients situation (eg medication, progress) was discussed, the chances of that client achieving a community outcome increased. This study highlights the importance of a strong working relationship between the case manager and the client, and suggests that future case management models should be client based in nature in order to optimise potential outcomes.

Article 2...