PSYCHOSOCIAL REHABILITATION - MANY VOICES, ONE WORLD - THE 5TH WORLD CONGRESS OF WAPR IN RETROSPECT

This paper is the introduction to the Special Section of the Psychiatr ic Rehabilitation Journal concerning the Fifth Congress of the World A ssociation for Psychosocial Rehabilitation (WAPR), held in April 1996 in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, First the authors elaborate on the sign ificance of psychosocial rehabilitation in The Netherlands in the cont ext of recent changes in Dutch mental health care, Secondly they discu ss some major topics and emerging trends kt the congress program, Next they give an introduction to the five articles of this Special Sectio n. Finally some recommendations are made for the future development of psychosocial rehabilitation using some of the major insights derived from this congress.