MENTAL-HEALTH CONSUMERS AS TRANSITIONAL AIDES - A BRIDGE FROM THE HOSPITAL TO THE COMMUNITY

This paper describes a consumer training project designed to facilitat e a seamless transition between state hospital and community care for individuals with severe mental illness. A training protocol was develo ped and eight consumers were selected for training. Six mental health consumers completed the training and went on to be employed. Four of t he consumers were employed by the Community Mental Health Center (CMHC ) to work as Transitional Aides. The two remaining consumers were hire d in the private sector. At the end of two years, five of the six TAs remain employed. Comparison of CMHC attendance for TA-Assisted and Non -Assisted consumers indicated that the TA-Assisted consumers had signi ficantly higher attendance and lower ''drop-out'' rates than the Non-A ssisted consumers. They also maintained contact with the CMHC for a lo nger time span than Non-Assisted consumers.