Financial Viability of a Psychiatric Rehabilitation Daycare Work Program in India.

To the Editor, Work has multiple clinical and socioeconomic benefits for persons with mental illness and developmental disabilities (henceforth referred to as Persons with Mental Health Challenges [PwMHC]), such as having a daytime routine; enhancing physical and psychological well-being, self-esteem, and quality of life; promoting socialization, positive self-identity, and recovery; and decreasing symptom severity, rehospitalization rates, duration of hospital stay, and family burden.[1]-[5] Work programs form a vital component of psychiatric rehabilitation services at many Indian psychiatric rehabilitation settings, including daycare and residential centers, tertiary care psychiatric hospitals, and general hospital psychiatry units.[4]-[6] A daycare-based "profit-oriented" work program (named Green Skills Program [GSP]) was conceptualized at a tertiary care psychiatric hospital. Certain fundamental limitations concerning work culture, functioning-levels of PwMHC referred for the program, and product sales need to be addressed systematically to make GSP a sustainable model. Alternately, settings such as "sheltered workshops" or "vocational training centers" with productivity or "profit-oriented" work culture might be better suited for profitable and sustainable work programs run with PwMHC. [Extracted from the article]