The time is right for recovery from serious mental disorders. Mental health professionals and state and local mental health agencies are responding to a national call for action on recovery: from the President's Commission on Mental Health, the Surgeon General, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. But how can recovery from mental disorders become a reality? Recovery From Disability describes the principles and practices of psychiatric rehabilitation to bridge the gap between what is known and what actually can be used to achieve recovery for patients in real-life mental health programs. The book draws on Dr. Robert Paul Liberman's 40 years of designing, testing, and disseminating innovative treatments for persons with mental disabilities. Illuminating up-to-date treatment techniques that reflect a consensus of experts regarding evidence-based practices, Dr. Liberman shows how recovery can be the rule rather than the exception. This practical book addresses day-to-day realities faced by practitioners who must wrestle with the individualized needs and personal goals of each patient while drawing up a rehabilitation roadmap to recovery. Written in a down-to-earth manner with minimal jargon, this clinical manual is intended for everyday use. Brimming with clear advice and ideas for effective services, the book is relevant to the work of all mental health disciplines, administrators, consumer advocates, and clinicians with all levels of experience. Practice-based evidence is highlighted by an abundance of real-life examples and a host of graphic aids. The author addresses the particular needs of Latino patients and takes up the latest developments in rehabilitation, such as illness management, social and independent living skills training, neurocognitive pharmacology, cognitive remediation, and use of computers in rehabilitation. Each chapter contains information, techniques, and treatment methods that enable clinicians to: Help patients select realistic yet personally meaningful goals for enriching their lives Teach patients how to stabilize their symptoms and cognitive impairments Train patients in social and independent living skills for empowerment and autonomy Educate family members and other caregivers to collaborate with mental health professionals in overcoming their loved one's disability Provide access to vocational rehabilitation, including supported employment Facilitate comprehensiveness, continuity, and coordination of competency-based rehabilitation, using personal support specialists, assertive community treatment, and integrated mental health care Dr. Liberman also describes how to customize services that are effective for individuals with more than one disorder, whose disorder is refractory to customary pharmacological and psychosocial treatments, or whose adaptation to community life is marred by aggressive behavior. With its wealth of rich and immediately applicable treatment approaches, Recovery From Disability will help professionals equip mentally disabled patients to reach their personally relevant goals and progress on the road to recovery.

The most recent high-profile advocate for Americans with disabilities, actor Christopher Reeve, has highlighted for the public the economic and social costs of disability and the importance of rehabilitation. Enabling America is a major analysis of the field of rehabilitation science and engineering. The book explains how to achieve recognition for this evolving field of study, how to set priorities, and how to improve the organization and administration of the numerous federal research programs in this area. The committee introduces the "enabling-disability process" model, which enhances the concepts of disability and rehabilitation, and reviews what is known and what research priorities are emerging in the areas of: Pathology and impairment, including differences between children and adults. Functional limitationsâ€"in a person's ability to eat or walk, for example. Disability as the interaction between a person's pathologies, impairments, and functional limitations and the surrounding physical and social environments. This landmark volume will be of special interest to anyone involved in rehabilitation science and engineering: federal policymakers, rehabilitation practitioners and administrators, researchers, and advocates for persons with disabilities.

Painâ€"it is the most common complaint presented to physicians. Yet pain is subjectiveâ€"it cannot be measured directly and is difficult to validate. Evaluating claims based on pain poses major problems for the Social Security Administration (SSA) and other disability insurers. This volume covers the epidemiology and physiology of pain; psychosocial contributions to pain and illness behavior; promising ways of assessing and measuring chronic pain and dysfunction; clinical aspects of prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation; and how the SSA's benefit structure and administrative procedures may affect pain complaints.

Volume numbers determined from Scope of the guidelines, p. 12-13.

The Social Security Administration (SSA) administers two programs that provide benefits based on disability: the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program and the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program. This report analyzes health care utilizations as they relate to impairment severity and SSA's definition of disability. Health Care Utilization as a Proxy in Disability Determination identifies types of utilizations that might be good proxies for "listing-level" severity; that is, what represents an impairment, or combination of impairments, that are severe enough to prevent a person from doing any gainful activity, regardless of age, education, or work experience.

Rehabilitation is dedicated to helping people not only survive, but also thrive. Despite this complex goal, the organizing principles of rehabilitation still rely on biomedicine to construct disability as a problem of impaired bodies. Rehabilitation professionals are committed to helping to enhance people's lives, but many struggle with how to do s

Born into a magical Cree world in snowy northern Manitoba, Champion and Ooneemeetoo Okimasis are all too soon torn from their family and thrust into the hostile world of a Catholic residential school. Their language is forbidden, their names are changed to Jeremiah and Gabriel, and both boys are abused by priests. As young men, estranged from their own people and alienated from the culture imposed upon them, the Okimasis brothers fight to survive. Wherever they go, the Fur Queen--a wily, shape-shifting trickster--watches over them with a protective eye. For Jeremiah and Gabriel are destined to be artists. Through music and dance they soar.

Emerging disabilities are disabling conditions that are new to medical science, often medically debated, and lacking in known etiology; or those increasing in prevalence in recent years. This master's-level text is the first to eschew traditional disabilities to focus specifically on the unique characteristics and needs of individuals with disabilities such as multiple chemical sensitivity, fibromyalgia, and Lyme disease, or those currently increasing in prevalence (e.g., diabetes, autism, PTSD), and explore their implications for rehabilitation counseling practice. The text is also unique in its examination of how disability causes, types, and patterns are changing in response to current medical, social, cultural, and environmental trends and addressing necessary changes to rehabilitation policies and practices to better serve consumers with emerging disabilities. The book explores important sociological and environmental phenomena such as global warming, pollution, poverty, violence, migration patterns, addiction, and substance abuse, and the changing age demographic of the United States that has altered the landscape of disability policy and rehabilitation services in the 21st century. Each chapter provides specific examples of disabling conditions and discusses their medical, psychosocial, and vocational significance. The authors examine implications for rehabilitation assessment, planning, and placement, and emphasize changes needed to rehabilitation policy and practice. The text is replete with practical evidence-based strategies for meeting the psychosocial and vocational needs of people with emerging disabilities. Chapters include case examples, learning objectives, and discussion questions. Key Features: Describes disabling conditions either new to medical science or increasing in prevalence in modern society Examines sociocultural, environmental, and legislative trends that have resulted in emerging disabilities Delivers policy, programming, and research recommendations to improve services and supports for Americans with emerging disabilities Provides practical, evidence-based strategies for meeting the psychosocial and vocational needs of people with emerging disabilities Includes learning objectives, case examples, and discussion questions Supplemental materials include PowerPoints, syllabus, and test bank