During the last decades of the 20th century, many psychiatric hospitals changed the living environments of their clients with long-term psychiatric disabilities. We investigated the effect of this environmental psychiatric rehabilitation and normalization process on the activity and participation level of such clients residing in one Dutch psychiatric hospital. The seven years of panel research demonstrated that more normal living environments have a positive effect on clients' activity and participation level. This is controlled for the fact that younger clients, and clients with a relative high activity and participation level were selected for these normal living environments.

This first version of FiRe is a valid and reliable instrument with which to gain insight into the quality and fidelity of individual practitioners' rehabilitation practices. The instrument used in this study will be further developed in line with study results. More importantly, FiRe raises questions about the definition of good BPR, a topic that should be explored more extensively in future research. (PsycINFO Database Record

BACKGROUND: People with serious mental illness (SMI) also want a job. Most employers shy away from recruiting staff with an increased risk of absence due to ill health. The Dutch situation may be of interest to other countries because employers are reluctant to hire staff due to the strong legal position of workers. This strong legal position protects workers in case of dismissal. In addition, employers are obliged to maintain salary commitments to workers in case of illness for an extended period of time. OBJECTIVE: What are the most effective strategies for employment specialists to use in order to make contact with potential employers? If it works in the Netherlands, we suggest, it will work in other countries as well. METHODS: We interviewed successful Dutch employment specialists: individually as well in a focus group. A three-step analysis process inspired by grounded theory was used. RESULTS: We describe nine effective strategies for establishing contact with potential employers. CONCLUSION: Networking strategies are considered to be the most effective.