Mental health and serious mental
IN 2001, APPROXIMATELY 15 million Americans aged 18 or older were estimated to have a serious mental illness (SMI; SAMHSA, 2002). Persons with serious mental illness (SMI) are individuals whose emotional or behavioral functioning is so impaired that they cannot remain in the community without supportive treatment. Their mental impairment is both severe and persistent and limits capacities for primary activities of daily living, interpersonal relationships, homemaking, self-care, employment, and recreation. When individuals with serious mental illness are discharged to the community, continuous care is both desirable and necessary ( Bachrach, 1981; Blank, Chang, Fox, Lawson, & Modlinski, 1996). Treatments for ...