Abstract

A VA Hospital Community - Focused Residential Care Program: Objectives and Outcomes

David Gitelson, D.S.W., Chief, Social Work Service, FDR VA Hospital

Arthur Russo, M.S.W., Program Director of Intensive Psychiatric Community Care, FDR VA Hospital

The Intensive Psychiatric Community Care Program (IPCC) at the FDR VA Hospital, Montrose, NY, serves veterans with a major primary psychiatric diagnosis (schizophrenia or affective disorder) who require supervisor living and community based intensive case management services. These services are provided by a multidisciplinary team comprised of a social work program coordinator, social workers, nurses a psychiatrist and a dietitian. The paper focuses on outcome measures of the IPCC experimental group as compared with a standard VA treatment control group.

Data indicates that a substantially larger percentage of the IPCC experimental group were discharged to the community as compared with the control group and that the IPCC group averaged 59% fewer psychiatric inpatient hospital days post discharge over the two year period studied.

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