Halfway Home and Group Home
There are broadly three stages of treatment and long term rehabilitation:
- Acute care/ Hospitalization: This is the first stage when the symptoms of the disease are acute and there is need for supervised medical treatment and therapy in a controlled environment such as a hospital or other suitable mental health establishment. This phase usually lasts anywhere between 1 – 6 months. Most people recover within six months i.e. they feel better enough to move out of the hospital, even if they are not completely ready for near independent/ supported living. Some patients with severe mental illness (SMI) will need additional stay in a Half-way home (short stay home) to facilitate their recovery and rehabilitation.
- Half-way home: This is the next step after hospitalization phase is over, and when the patient has stabilized on medication. A half-way home, as the name suggests, is a transient place of stay between the hospital and the person’s home. Half-way homes function as ‘Rehabilitation Homes’, because the whole emphasis is to prepare the patient to lead a more independent life within the family and/or in the community. Thus apart from supervised medication, there is suitable emphasis on Activities of Daily Living, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Counseling, Family therapy and Vocational Training. The average stay of a person with severe mental illness in a Half-way home is between 6 to 18 months. The sooner someone recovers, the sooner they are able to move out and go back to their homes. [Note: If these patients are not provided the facility of a Half-way home, they would either continue to unnecessarily burden the ‘Acute care/ Hospital’ facilities, or even worse, the patients and their families would be hugely burdened by the illness as they would not be in a position to cope or care. Therefore it is necessary to have at least one Half-way home in each District].
- Long-term Group Home: This is the final stage for those individuals who have sufficiently recovered from their mental illness, but still need active support for activities such as: supervised medication, counseling, and help with financial matters, employment, travel, medical care etc. The need for Group Home is most acute when the parents of persons with mental illness are either too old to take care of their wards or are simply not alive anymore. A Group Home, as the name suggests, is like a home where the residents live together like an extended family, with the support of mental health professionals and social workers. The Group Home is not a Hostel or an Institution-based rehabilitation set-up. The residents live freely within the community in a residential area, with some support as mentioned above. These social support systems are necessary for their long term well-being and recovery. The ideal number of residents in a Group Home is 10 – 15, depending on the size of the home/plot. Over time as the residents get older, the staff at the Group Home must be equipped to handle both mental and physical problems. At this stage, the care and services required are very similar to those required in an Old-age Home.