Community-based care for the mentally disordered in Kawasaki City: experiences from Kawasaki City Psychiatric Rehabilitation Center.

The basic aims of Kawasaki City Psychiatric Rehabilitation Center are: (i) taking some measures for the hospitalized patients unable to leave because of residential problems; (ii) providing a daily program for the discharged from psychiatric hospital; (iii) developing vocational rehabilitation for the mentally disordered; and (iv) developing a support network for the mentally disordered in the community. To fulfill these aims and to meet the various needs of our users, we have provided a very comprehensive program composed of a ward, outpatient section, day care groups, vocational service and half-way house. According to the program, various services such as medical treatment in a narrow sense, basic training of social skills and human relations, vocational training system that meets the various needs and work abilities of the users, and after care services that enable them to support themselves living in the community are available. These services give them great comfort to live in the community; however, they might serve to increase their dependency on the center. Our future task is to cooperate with various social resources such as workshops, group homes and places to stay and rest during the day, which are being developed in Kawasaki City. By supporting those facilities, we expect to refer our members to them and we put more weight on the indirect service than the direct one, which would hopefully enable us to cover and care for more people in need.