1. Psychosocial
Rehabilitation
(PSR)
A process that facilitates the opportunity for individuals - who are impaired,
disabled or handicapped by a mental disorder - to reach their optimal level of
independent functioning in the community.
By:
Farah Adibah Kasmin
Undergraduate
UiTM

2. Objectives
• To enable patients to achieve their optimal functioning.
• To enable patients to live independently.
• To empower patients to understand and manage their illness
effectively.
• To encourage involvement of families in care.

3. Aspects of PSR: Involvement, Activities, Service Target, Treatment
Setting
A) Involvement
Occupational
Psychiatrist Nurses
therapist
• Provide structured activities • Making medical diagnoses • Case management
designed to help • Prescribing medications • Managing medications
individuals deal with their • Administering additional • Facilitating therapy
problems treatments as (individual, family, or group)
• Prescribe activities that electroconvulsive therapy • Clinical supervision
enable individuals to (ECT)
express emotions and
develop skills in relating
with others.
Rehabilitation
Social workers counselors Clinical psychologist
• Assess family, social, and • Involved in case • Expertise in diagnosing and
environmental factors that management and in assisting assessing treatment effects
contribute to dysfunctional individuals with employment, by using personality
behaviour in the individual or housing, coping skills, and inventories and tests,
the family. academic preparation. including intelligence tests
• Primary contributors to the
planning and implementation
of follow-up care

4. B) Activities
1. Psychoeducation
- It is an ongoing process include providing information on illness and
management, early warning signs detection and crisis intervention and
management.
2. Family intervention
- It includes education, communication skills and problem solving training, stress
management, crisis management and identifying early warning signs.
- Must be made available to all families of patients who had a recent relapse or
had been admitted and to families of patients with persisting symptoms.
3. Social skills training and/or illness management programmes
- This consists of practicing specific skills such as self care, conversation, making
friends
4. Cognitive remediation
- This is based on 3 principles i.e. teaching new information processing strategies,
individualizing treatment and helping to transfer this improvement in real life.
5. Job placement (supported employement)
- It refers to immediate job placement in mainstream work environment, training
and support on the job.

5. • Inpatient rehabilitation:
a) Psycho education
b) Family intervention
c) Activities of daily living
d) Management of daily routine
e) Grooming and personal hygiene
f) Job search and job matching
g) Effective use of leisure time
h) Illness management

6. c) The Service Target
The target group of PSR in Malaysia has remained towards those with
severe mental illnesses:
• chronic schizophrenia
• severe bipolar disorders
• people with dual diagnoses
THE PSYCHOSOCIAL REHABILITATION (PSR) FOR SEVERELY MENTALLY ILLS IN MALAYSIA: THE PAST AND PRESENT. ASEAN Journal of
Psychiatry, Vol.11(1): Jan – June 2010

7. d) Treatment setting
• The first proper attempt in community-based rehabilitation of the
mentally ill occurred in Ipoh where a mental health association and
day-care centre were opened in 1967 and 1969 respectively
Later, a hospital-based day-care centre was also opened in 1971
for patients about to be discharged or on leave from acute care.
Subsequently, similar day care centers were opened in more general
hospitals all over Malaysia. Such centers were opened in general
hospitals like University Malaya Hospital, Kuala Lumpur General Hospital,
and Sarawak General Hospital
• When the community psychiatric care activities started to be developed in
general hospital setting all over Malaysia, the community mental health
staffs started to do rehabilitation activities at the patient’s home and
started to involve the patient’s relatives.